出版社：Université Catholique de Louvain, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
摘要：Pirates have captured the popular imagination since the Golden Age of Piracy. In a variety of forms and genres, historical pirate narratives become rewritten, fictionalised, and, more often than not, glamourised. Pirates are a surface onto which a variety of socio-cultural agendas can be projected, a cultural cliché which can be evoked and subverted. This article argues that a decisive factor for the popularity of pirates is their elusiveness and their sudden ways of appearing, disappearing and reappearing. The focus of interest will be an analysis of how the quality of factual, historical existence is transformed in fiction, using visual elements and emphasising theatricality and spectacle. The article will address the success story of pirate fictions and then proceed to look into performances of identity in historical pirate communities. With the Pirates of the Caribbean series as an example, the heroic and aesthetic potential of pirates and their (dis)appearances will be examined in detail.
