DIANE LICHTENSTEIN

Public Presentations:

Nineteenth and/or Twentieth-Century American Women Writers
Presentations can be adapted to fit the interest of the audience and organization. For example, it might focus on individual authors (Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Emma Lazarus, Edith Wharton, Edna Ferber, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Dorothy Canfield Fisher) or provide an overview of either nineteenth, twentieth, or nineteenth and twentieth-century writers.

Nineteenth and/or Twentieth-Century American Women Writers Fiction and Domestic Efficiency, 1910s and 1920s
Home economists adapted principles of industrial efficiency to American domestic space in the 1910s and 1920s. In novels such as Edith Wharton’s 1927 Twilight Sleep and Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s 1924 The Home-Maker, the unintended consequences of making the home and family life more efficient are critically depicted. This presentation focuses on both the tenets of early twentieth-century domestic efficiency and the fiction.

Jewish American Women Writers
In the nineteenth century, Jewish American women writers attempted to maintain identities as Jews and Americans and used their poetry, fiction, and essays to affirm loyalty to both their nations. This presentation will begin with nineteenth-century writers such as Emma Lazarus, Rebekah Hyneman, and Emma Wolf and move onto twentieth-century writers including Edna Ferber and Fannie Hurst.

Other Public Program Ideas: Diane Lichtenstein is available to facilitate book discussions.