ABSTRACT
Contemporary protest is often intertextual: characters, anthems and slogans from feature films and television series turn up regularly at demonstrations throughout the world. Taking this as its starting point, the chapter reflects on the relationship between popular fictions and protest from a historical point of view. The protesters at the heart of four texts – Spartacus, Robin Hood, The Hunger Games and Mr. Robot – are compared in a narrative analysis that shows a startling resemblance between these seemingly disparate tales. It is argued that the tropes associated with these rebels and the decadent capitals threatened by their indignation – be they Rome, New York or Panem – comprise powerful ideological backdrops to real protest, and frameworks for sense-making of it.
