Book Review: Crisis and Legitimacy in Atlantic American Narratives of Piracy, 1678–1865 by Alexandra Ganser

Abstract

Alexandra Ganser’s Crisis and Legitimacy in Atlantic American Narratives of Piracy, 1678–1865 sets out on an ambitious mission. The book enters an already crowded scholarly conversation – as noted in its introduction, ‘Pirates are everywhere today’ (1) – and attempts a new critical approach to their study. This novelty manifests itself both in the sophistication of Ganser’s arguments and the scope of texts she considers: the book comprises a plethora of genres, periods, methodologies and observations arranged chronologically and intended to demonstrate the inherent paradox of the pirate figure – a figure that exists in the liminal space between legitimate and illegitimate social orders. At the centre of Ganser’s thesis lies her contention that ‘pirate narratives articulate a Freudian return of the oppressed – of colonial violence and resistance in critical moments of North American history’ (4). Ganser uses these moments of crisis to conceptualize her readings of popular accounts of piracy. The book’s introduction lays the foundation of Ganser’s theoretical approach, which is firmly rooted in the sphere of cultural studies. Borrowing a term from literary theorist Edward Said, she employs a ‘contrapuntal’ lens through which to theorize her texts. This methodology allows her to foreground literary voices that have heretofore been drowned out by canonical writings – voices that often challenge received accounts of piracy. Chapter 2 considers the pirate against the backdrop of colonial legitimacy; the texts considered include the English translation of Alexander Exquemelin’s Buccaneers of America (1684) and the sermons of Cotton Mather. The third chapter turns to the Early American Republic and the Antebellum Period, and views its attendant pirate narratives through the lenses of freedom and oppression. Here, Ganser provides close readings of James Fenimore Cooper’s Red Rover (1827) and Maturin Murray Ballou’s Fanny Campbell (1844). In her fourth chapter – arguably her strongest – Ganser investigates theoretical links between piracy and slavery in the years before and during the American Civil War. Particularly engaging are her complementary analyses of M. M. Philip’s Emmanuel Appadocca (1854) and Herman Melville’s ‘Benito Cereno’ (1855–1856). The chapter closes with a fascinating discussion of piratical rhetoric during the Civil War itself: the images printed on Union envelopes provide the fodder for Ganser’s assessment. In its brief conclusion, the book proposes ways forward for the cultural study of the pirate. Book Reviews IJMH