About the Seminar

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is a staple in high school American literature curricula throughout the United States. Originally produced to a lukewarm reception in 1953, it was re-staged to more enthusiastic reviews in 1957 and made into a major motion picture in 1996. To what extent is it “about” the Salem Witch Trials and “about” McCarthyism? What can the play tell us about politics, American identity, the individual, women, community, and sexuality in the early years of the Cold War? What accounts for the play’s continuing power? How has more than half a century given us new perspectives on it?

Leader

Florence Dore

Professor of English,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
National Humanities Center Fellow