Crisis and Legitimacy in Atlantic American Narratives of Piracy

Alexandra Ganser is Professor of American Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, where she also heads the interdisciplinary research platform and PhD program “Mobile Cultures and Societies” and co-directs the Centre for Canadian Studies. Focusing on mobility in North American literature and culture in her work, she has received research awards and grants in Austria, Germany, the UK, and the US.

• 1. Introduction: The Pirate as a Figure of Crisis and Legitimacy.- 2. Pirate Narratives and the Colonial Atlantic.- 3. Pirate Narratives and the Revolutionary Atlantic in the Early Republic and the Antebellum Period.- 4. Cultural Constructions of Piracy during the Crisis over Slavery.- 5. Coda.