Eric G. Wilson Questions Happiness in Feb. 19 Presentation at Lebanon Valley College

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Eric Wilson will question the American notion of happiness in a Feb. 19 presentation at Lebanon Valley College.

ANNVILLE, PA (02/03/2013)(readMedia)-- Lebanon Valley College will host Dr. Eric G. Wilson for a presentation titled "Against Happiness," February 19 at 7 p.m. in Leedy Theater of Mund College Center. The lecture is part of the HAPPINESS Colloquium Series.

Wilson asserts that melancholia is necessary for any thriving culture. He argues that it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation – the force underlying original insight.

"I am afraid that our American culture's overemphasis on happiness at the expense of sadness might be dangerous, a wanton forgetting of an essential part of a full life," Wilson said. "To desire happiness only in a world undoubtedly tragic is to become inauthentic."

Wilson, an English professor at Wake Forest University, is the author of "Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy" (2008), an L.A. Times bestseller. "Against Happiness" was featured on national and international media channels including NBC's "Today Show," NPR's "All Things Considered," Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times. "Against Happiness" has been translated into nine languages.

HAPPINESS is a year-long integrated series of guest speakers, roundtable discussions, films and courses that will consider the meaning and importance of happiness as a psychological, physiological, social and cultural phenomenon. It involves presentations by speakers from a number of disciplines who approach the theme from the standpoints of the arts, the wellness of body and mind, the demands of a consumer economy, the expectations and duties of political life, and the broad philosophical questions of human flourishing. For more information visit www.lvc.edu/live-calendar.