War Captivity as a Contact Zone: The Case of British Prisoners of War on Parole in Napoleonic France

The existing scholarship on Napoleonic captivity tends to focus on French prisoners of war held in Britain at the time. This article seeks to help redress this gap by drawing upon a range of English and French sources to investigate how British captives on parole experienced displacement in Napoleonic France during up to eleven years of their lives, between 1803 and 1814. The multifaceted relations that prisoners developed with residents and fellow captives offer important nuances for our understanding of Franco-British relations during the period. They also provide an insight into how war captivity formed a ‘contact zone’ amidst the conflict. Through this case study, the article highlights that the notion of ‘contact zone’ can provide a helpful framework to further conceptualise histories of prisoner of war experience, even beyond the Napoleonic Wars.