From Hawkins to Jenkins: interpreting violence in British-Atlantic piracy narratives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Reports of extreme violence are a defining feature of British-Atlantic piracy narratives. These violent episodes illustrate human behavior beyond the boundaries of civil norms and as such allow for a fundamental interrogation of those boundaries. The transgressive violence of pirate figures makes them ideally suited to exploring major political and philosophical topics of the period; the story of piratical violence allows for dialogic formulations – claims and counterclaims – about national character, human nature, civil society, and the workings of empire in the Atlantic. While some British pirate narratives recount violence in order to assert nationalist, even jingoistic perspectives, others explore piratical violence as a way of satirizing mainstream British culture and imperialism as fundamentally predatory and piratical.