Tuesday, March 25, 2003: 3:00-5:00 p.m.
What explains the appeal of the lavish wedding in contemporary
consumer culture in the U.S. and around the world, and why
has that appeal been growing, especially since the 1980's?
Elizabeth Pleck will discuss these issues, which also are
addressed in her forthcoming book with Cele Otnes called Cinderella
Dream: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding in Contemporary Consumer
Culture (University of California Press, Fall, 2003),
Professor Elizabeth Pleck specializes in U.S. family history.
Her current research interests include a history of family
rituals in nineteenth and twentieth-century America, emphasizing
ritual as women's work and ritual as aspects of ethnic tradition,
reinvention, and self-definition. Selected publications include
Black Migration and Poverty: Boston 1865-1900 (New
York: Academic Press, 1979); Domestic Tyranny: The Making
of Social Policy Against Family Violence from Colonial Times
to the Present (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987);
and co-editing with Nancy F. Cott A Heritage of Her Own:
Toward a New Social History of American Women (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1979), Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity,
Consumer Culture, and Family Rituals (Harvard University
Press, 2000), and co-author with Cele Otnes of Cinderella
Dream: The White Wedding in Consumer Culture (University
of California Press, forthcoming). Professor Pleck received
her doctorate from Brandeis University in 1973.
The MARIAL Center
Emory West, 4th Floor, Room 415E
Open to the public
Refreshments will be served
