Shakespeare, Adaptation and Storytelling in Children’s Literature

Dear Colleagues,

We invite submissions for a Special Issue of Literature focusing on Shakespeare, Adaptation and Storytelling in Children’s Literature. This issue aims to explore the rich and evolving relationship between Shakespearean drama and the world of storytelling for children, with a particular emphasis on narrative adaptations.

The history of adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays for young readers (using Linda Hutcheon’s definition of “adaptation” as “both a product and a process of creation and reception” [2006: 14]) has, for a couple of centuries, largely been a tale of drama turned into narrative. Charles and Mary Lamb, with their Tales from Shakespeare (1807), inaugurated the tradition of narrative adaptations of the plays in England—a tradition still upheld by many contemporary writers, who offer narrativizations that do not necessarily supplement or expand Shakespeare’s plots. At the same time, Shakespeare himself—his biography, historical context, and personality—has been adapted for child and young adult audiences primarily through fiction, allowing young readers to encounter various versions of the playwright. These portrayals often incorporate traits drawn from his life, his works, his business dealings, and popular conceptions surrounding his persona.

In providing children and young adults with the experience of reading Shakespeare in a safe and entertaining form, authors do not always resort to cutting or simplifying. Instead, they may include various kinds of supplementary and extra-textual information in their versions, filling the gaps in Shakespeare’s plays. YA novels, for example, often describe events that must have occurred off stage, in the speculative world that precedes or follows the performance, but of which there is no trace in the original text.

Adaptations of Shakespeare for children in popular media also recognize the importance of visual literacy among contemporary young audiences—through picture books, graphic novels, and animations tailored specifically for them. These adaptations raise compelling questions about how theatre, narrative, form, and character are translated across age groups and storytelling genres. What happens to Shakespeare’s complex themes, language, ideology, and dramatic structures when they are reimagined as short stories, novels, manga or picture books for children and young adults? How do these narratives reflect and reshape cultural understandings of both Shakespeare and childhood?

Like many aspects of children’s literature, adaptations of "the canon" pose questions about the imbalance of power between adult and child, inviting reflection on the adult desire to control how the child encounters, interprets, and appreciates the milestones of world literature.

We welcome papers that examine:

• Narrative strategies in adaptations of Shakespeare for young readers, from drama to narrative;
• The role of the narrator and storytelling voice in reinterpreting Shakespeare;
• Intersections of Shakespearean content with narrative sources;
• Visual storytelling (e.g., illustrated books, graphic novels, comic books) and its narrative functions;
• The transformation of Shakespearean drama into storybook narratives;
• Shakespeare as a character in children’s and YA fiction.

We especially encourage interdisciplinary approaches that draw on literary studies, adaptation theory, and children’s literature studies.

Submission Guidelines:

Please send a proposal of around 500 words, along with a biographical note, to both Guest Editors (tosilaur@unive.it & rachele.bassan@unive.it) and cc the Assistant Editor, Ms. Joyce Xi (joyce.xi@mdpi.com) by 30 October 2025. Full papers are due on 30 April 2026.

Prospective contributors are also invited to read the following critical works before submission:

Hateley, Erica, Shakespeare in Children’s Literature. Gender and Cultural Capital, 2009.

Isaac, Megan Lynn, Heirs to Shakespeare. Reinventing the Bard in Young Adult Literature, Heinemann, 2000.

Marokakis, Michael, Shakespearian Spaces in Australian Literary Adaptations for Children and Young Adults, Routledge 2023.

Miller, Naomi (ed) Reimagining Shakespeare for Children and Young Adults, Routledge 2003.

Anja Müller (ed) Adapting Canonical Texts in Children’s Literature, Bloomsbury, 2013 (esp. section on Shakespeare adaptations pp. 9-112).

Tosi, Laura, “The Narrator as Mediator and Explicator in Victorian and Edwardian Retellings of Shakespeare for Children”, Cahiers Victoriens et édouardiens, vol. 92, pp. 1-16, 2020.

Tosi, Laura, “But it's the Story We Like": King Lear for Children: From Drama to Narrative”, Children’s Literature, vol. 42, pp. 246-274, 2014.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Laura Tosi
Dr. Rachele Bassan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Literature is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• adaptation
• Shakespeare
• children’s literature
• narrative
• storytelling
• narrativization