ABSTRACT
The recent proliferation of Young Adult (YA) fiction adaptations of Shakespeare has represented, for many, a deliberate effort to recognize Shakespeare as empowering for girls. By centering girl characters and rewriting tragic narratives to include the survival of figures like Juliet and Ophelia, YA adaptations promote a limited feminist (often postfeminist) approach to Shakespeare’s plays and explicitly encourage girls to read Shakespeare from this perspective. Drawing on novels like Romeo’s Ex, Saving Juliet, Dating Hamlet, Ophelia, The Steep and Thorny Way, and Exit, Pursued by a Bear, this chapter shows how YA fiction construes experiences such as sexual assault and the pursuit of education as universal signifiers of girlhood and as the grounds upon which Shakespeare matters to popular culture today.
