摘要：This special issue of darkmatter sets out to examine the complicated and often incongruous
cultural meanings assigned to pirates and piracy in the twenty-first century.[1] Debates about
piracy have long featured certain telling contradictions. At different times, pirates have been
seen as both violent monsters and colorful folk heroes. They have been cast by historians and
cultural critics as both capitalist marauders and militant workers fighting for a restoration of
the commons.[2] How can we account for these seemingly incompatible visions? Of course, it
is important to observe that pirates were hardly uniform in their social and political
orientations. Some were greedy opportunists. Some were desperate sailors and slaves driven
to mutiny. Others were somewhere in-between. We should also recognize that our
understanding of piracy is powerfully shaped by our economic interests and our relationship
with the law. The propertied targets of piratical theft are quick to view pirates as criminal
actors outside the bounds of civilized behavior, but the dispossessed are inclined to take a
more nuanced approach that admires the defiance of the pirates at the same time as it fears
their violence
