The Pulitzer Prize in Drama, which was first awarded in 1918, remains the most respected prize in theatre in the United States. Indeed, most of the Pulitzer plays have entered the canon of U.S. drama and still circulate widely. This has been especially true since World War II, when virtually every major playwright has won at least one award, including Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, Paula Vogel, and Suzan-Lori Parks. The canonizing power of the Pulitzer Prize is especially marked outside the U.S., where the winning plays form a kind of instant canon of work which is performed and studied. Outside the U.S., it is rarely noted that the Pulitzer plays tend in fact to be more conservative both aesthetically and politically than many other U.S. plays and deeply tied to the U.S. cultural elite which bestows the award. In this seminar, we will survey the field of Pulitzer Prize-winning plays since World War II and consider how and why they were selected. We will also analyze the narratives and myths this canon of plays consolidates about society, politics, and art in the U.S.