CFP for Special Session Panel

American Literature Association Conference

May 21-24, 2025

Boston, Massachusetts

Interest in the philosophical ideas of the Greek and Roman Stoics has burgeoned over the

past three decades, and Stoicism is experiencing a fascinating resurgence into various

facets of U.S. literature and culture. Although this popularity across diverse groups of

readers seems new, Stoicism has had a long if changeable history in the U.S.—from the

Puritan colonial settlers (who brought Stoic texts with them across the Atlantic) and

Enlightenment Founders (who used Stoic ideas, quoted Stoic texts, and admired Stoic

heroes), through the Transcendentalist Era (whose writers often adopted Stoic ideas about

nature and self-reliance) to the recent Stoic revival in literary and popular culture (as in the

recent Alexander Payne film The Holdovers).

This panel invites proposals for papers on any aspect of Stoicism in U.S. literature and

culture. We welcome papers about Stoic themes in U.S. literary texts, specific authors’

engagement with Stoicism, pop culture appropriations of Stoicism, the development of

Stoic ideas in distinctively American ways, the use or reception of Stoic ideas among

particular audiences, and other related topics.

Please send a brief CV and abstracts to LuElla D’Amico at ldamico@uiwtx.edu and Gregory

Eiselein at eiselei@ksu.edu by January 15, 2025.