ABSTRACT
Constructions of Shakespeare's value to suit our own times, at least through new media and pre-eminently movies, continue unabated to influence and be appropriated by contemporary society, reflecting its plural and often conflicting values. This chapter suggests that one such construction, an especially topical one, hinges on the possibility Shakespeare offers of defining human freedom in societies run by governments that are only too determined to curtail and suppress individual rights. It argues that we can see this construction in recent developments in Shakespearean criticism, by contrast with trends in the preceding thirty or so years. Change for the better, it seems, often comes from people who challenge authority rather than from those who accede to it; and we find these days, more often than not, that Shakespeare's lines have been used by progressive thinkers to clinch their own anti-authoritarian positions, and persuade others of them.
