[David Palmer]

2015 is the centennial of Arthur Miller’s birth. As part of the celebration of this event, the Arthur Miller Society is organizing a session at the 2015 MLA convention in Vancouver on a central theme in Miller’s literary work and his career as a public intellectual: the elusiveness of the American Dream, the Dream’s foundations in what often are considered incompatible ideals in American visions of democracy, and the Dream’s role in shaping the stories Americans tell themselves about who they are and the moral justifications of their actions. Much of the discussion in this session will focus specifically on Miller’s ideas: for example, Death of a Salesman and others of Miller’s plays or Miller’s statements during the McCarthy Era or the Vietnam War. But the Miller Society also invites papers more broadly focused on the theme of the American Dream in general and its role in American society. We are seeking papers that explore other authors’ views on the American Dream or that consider current discussions of equality and social justice in America as ways of enhancing our understanding of the broad social context of the issues Miller himself addressed.

300-word proposals for papers should be sent by March 1, 2014, to David Palmer, Humanities Department, Massachusetts Maritime Academy: dpalmer@maritime.edu.

Thank you for considering this request

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