The Master of the Rebels

This dissertation tells the story of Shakespeare's role in the invention of the teenager and teenagers' roles in re-inventing Shakespeare. In post World War II England, Australia, and the United States, Shakespeare's plays became one arena where competing versions of teenage identity were defined, with Shakespearean characters and teenage subjects cast as rebels or romantic consumers. I argue that a narrow canon of School Shakespeare has emerged, with Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet recast as plays about romantic consumption, limiting the political roles of teenagers to onlookers rather than rebellious actors. Attending to what I term double reply, I contend that teenagers can resist their interpellation as romantic consumers, carving a powerful alternative discourse through parody and non-verbal performance.