The Caribbean has long been portrayed in fiction as an exotic destination for journeys of pleasure and self-discovery by non-Caribbean authors. This chapter examines historical pirate romances set in the Caribbean and the ways they frame the location, including elements like colonialism, slavery, and race, as part of the protagonists' romantic journeys. While many pirate romances rely on romanticised constructions of the Caribbean landscape, glossing over problematic issues like slavery or colonialism, Captured (2009) by Beverly Jenkins and What the Parrot Saw (2019) by Darlene Marshall show how thoughtful engagements with piracy within the historical context of slavery and the Caribbean economy can create a narrative of the past that is both romantic and reparative.
According to the Introduction to the volume:
Sarah Ficke’s “Falling in Love Outside of the Law: Piracy, Race, and Freedom in Caribbean Historical Romance” analyses contemporary variations of the classic pirate romances of the 1980s through a discussion of two recent romance novels: Beverly Jenkins’s Captured (2009) and Darlene Marshall’s What the Parrot Saw (2019). In contrast to earlier pirate romance novels which tended to rely on formulaic constructions of the Caribbean landscape, avoiding problematic issues like slavery or colonialism, these novels engage in reparative discussions of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the workings of plantation economy, as well as their contemporary repercussions. Ficke demonstrates that Jenkins’s and Marshall’s novels overtly confront these painful and problematic historical legacies while creating satisfying romantic stories for their protagonists. They do so by featuring non-white protagonists, by playing with the traditional tropes of exotic travel and self-exploration which define Caribbean pirate romances and by establishing the pirate ship as a catalyst for social transformation. (19)
Here's the abstract:
According to the Introduction to the volume: