‘Parrots and pieces of eight’: Recent trends in Pirate Studies

This article explores the figure of the pirate in literature and criticism. In particular it pays attention to some of the ways literary critics and cultural historians have suggested pirates should be understood: whether as political or sexual radicals, as interceptors of and disrupters to networks of economic and cultural exchange, or as key, if often unrecognised, players in the formation of Empire. The role of pirates and piracy is examined in a number of genres here, but the complex and contradictory ways these exciting but dangerous figures are represented in Renaissance drama is of central concern.