The Social Practice in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: A Study Based on Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis

Relying on the social practice dimension of Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, this paper ponders upon the social practices within which Miller penned the play. This potentially helps us to recognize the indispensableconnection between social practices and discursive production namely the literary textual production. Here wetrace American ideology as represented in the play to investigate how Miller reacts to the social events of histime in his writings. Some special discourses of American society in the 20th century such as American Dream, Great Depression, capitalism, and elements of Miller’s own personal life will be studied to see how theyconstitute the underlying basis of Death of a Salesman. Results indicate the tight relation between textual andcontextual features; texts as discursive practices stemmed from their social structures and the commonideologies of each time build the foundation of literary works. As a discursive practice, Death of a Salesman is closely connected with its socio-historical background. Miller as a writer, who lives and experiences the social crisis of the 20th century, has imported the same discourses and structures into the play.

Keywords:

Death of a Salesman , Fairclough , three-dimensional model , social practice , ideology