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This dissertation examines the cultural significance of the sudden and rapid
proliferation of piracy and pirate illustrations that marked the turn of the twentieth
century in the United States. During this “Golden Age” (c. 1880-1920) – an era that
witnessed an explosion of magazine and book imagery – the illustrators Howard Pyle, N.
C. Wyeth, and Frank E. Schoonover turned away from the realities and histories of piracy
and shaped instead a new, fantastical icon. Pyle, in particular, created this adventurer,
immersing him –and vicariously, his admirers – in exotic, violent fantasy. Wyeth and
Schoonover, Pyle’s students, followed in their teacher’s iconographical footsteps even as
they developed their own individual styles. So powerful was the fantastical pirate’s
appeal that he continued to generate excitement decades after the Golden Age in
illustrations as well as in lucrative Hollywood productions. The Pirates of the Caribbean
trilogy (2003, 2006, 2007) testifies to the hold the pirate maintains over the popular
imagination. In The Goonies – a pirate film from 1985 – a treasure map warns, “Ye intruders
beware;” used here, the expression suggests that this dissertation intrudes into the pirate’s
world, looking beneath its frivolity to expose a deeper understanding of the pirate icon,
the illustrators that conceived him, and the audiences that embraced him at the turn of the
twentieth century and continue to cherish him today. The first chapter introduces the
question “Why the pirate?” Chapter two inspects the illustrated pirate in relation to fin-de-siècle issues of masculinity while the third chapter looks at the icon alongside
contemporary notions of class. Chapter four pries into turn-of-the-century ideologies of
race and imperialism as pirate illustrators promoted both the fear and fascination of the
piratical “other.” The final chapter looks beyond the Golden Age of illustration by
examining the continuation of the pirate fantasy in twenty- and twenty-first-century
illustration and film. It also examines the reality of piracy that threatens to overshadow
the fantastical icon. With twenty-first century pirates marauding the coast of Africa, the
notion of a pirate hero must be questioned even as we continue to enjoy the figure dreamt
up by Golden Age illustrators. |
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