“Making his men believe he was a devil incarnate”: gênero, hidrarquia e masculinidade na pirataria moderna através de general history of the pyrates (Atlântico, século XVIII)

Abstract

This study covers the North Atlantic and the Caribbean region in the first two decades of the 18th century. In this research I propose to understand gender relations, with an emphasis on masculinities, in early modern piracy through the work A General History of The Pirates (1724) signed by Captain Charles Johnson. To do this, I use the 1999 English edition by Manuel Schonhorn, which transcribes the 1726 English edition of the first volume of the book. This study interrelates theoretical perspectives on gender and masculinities, especially those of Joan Scott (1999) and Raewyn Connell (2000), and on piracy, especially Lauren Benton (2010) and Linebaugh and Rediker (2008). Through the methodological proposal of discursive textual analysis (MORAES, 2016), I develop a historiographical study centered on how masculinities and gender relations are presented in the subtexts of the source in a transversal way. By analyzing not only the content of the source but also its production context, I identify that although pirates occupied a position of moral condemnation in the period, at the same time they participated in the construction of the gender hierarchy and performances of masculinity characteristic of the early modern age.