“The ‘Networking’ of the Shrew: Katherina Minola on Facebook”

This paper examines the ‘staging’ of Shakespeare’s ‘shrew,’ Katherina, on Facebook. The different individual responses to the character present in the social network are analysed and categorised to determine specific reception modes and highlight the role of the new medium in the popular reception of Shakespeare’s plays. This paper aims not to describe the consequences of the use of Shakespeare for the Net (the ‘ennobling’ of Web 2.0, thanks to the authority of the ‘Bard’) but to interpret this new kind of literary afterlife online by explaining the features of these unorthodox reworkings of Shakespeare’s ‘shrew’ and by studying them in view of critical literature and in relation to other forms of popular adaptation. The conclusions show that the contemporary networking of Katherina Minola by ordinary people on Facebook mostly follows the same predominantly conservative line as the reception by the cultural élite of meaning makers.