“Shakespeare in Time of War”: teatro e propaganda durante la Grande guerra

The appropriations of Shakespeare during the Great War are certainly among the most relevant examples of cultural mobilisation of his work. Through the analysis of some misleading quotations, the article examines the use of Shakespeare’s words in propaganda materials, the performance of Shakespearean plays during the war, Francis Colmer’s and Fred Askew’s Shakespearean anthologies, as well as the patriotic role attributed to Shakespeare in the 1916 tercentenary. The aim is to outline the culture of quotation during the Great War, the rhetorical techniques through which propaganda used Shakespearean texts, and the contradictions of such operations.