Who 'Twas That Cut Thy Tongue

About the Book

The Shakespeare resurgence around the turn of the millennium has seen a plethora of new films, stage performances and teaching strategies, many of them aimed at the adolescent audience. Dr. Bagg claims that the popularizing and problematising of Shakespeare – as exemplified in Hollywood and postmodern takes on his work – demotes the language of the plays and in doing so strips them of their kaleidoscopic perspectivising and skepticism. Her own intensive work with adolescents – both in the classroom and on stage – convinces her that Shakespearean language and the world views that it opens up can indeed become accessible to adolescents, and she argues passionately that depriving them of this access is short-sighted and unfair.

About the Author

Melissa Bagg received her PhD from the University of Massachusetts in 2003. From 1988 to 2004 she taught at the Ecole d’Humanité in Switzerland, where she worked intensively on Shakespeare with adolescents, both in the classroom and on stage. Her explorations of how professional directing techniques for working with actors on Shakespearean texts can be adapted to elicit insights in high school students led to the dissertation on which this book is based. Dr. Bagg currently lives outside of Basel with her husband and three children. .