Lesbian historical fiction gives lesbian readers what we want but can’t have, depictions of lesbians in history. While the term “lesbian” is troubled in reference to the past, when it didn’t exist or wasn’t used, contemporary lesbian identity requires a past in order for lesbians to thrive and to imagine a future, even if that past is speculative. Lesbians find peril and promise on the high seas in a subgenre of historical novels set in the Atlantic World of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. A very few protagonists are part of the European colonialist enterprise, others are emigrants (Jewish, Irish, and English) escaping violence and poverty, and the vast majority are pirates. Taking their cue from radical scholarship that depicts the pirate enterprise as a diverse anti-capitalist working class that disrupted the slave trade, pirate novels make the seafaring life a subversive backdrop for lesbian historical fiction. The historical existence of cross-dressing women pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read open the door for numerous fictional lesbian pirates who, like so many immigrants in historical novels, make good role models for rebellious heroism.
The chapter draws in most depth from three novels:
Three books from the lesbian press Bold Strokes Books provide apt examples to study the similarities and variety in the lesbian pirate subgenre. Collette Moody’s The Sublime and Spirited Voyage of Original Sin (2009) is a straightforward romance: lesbian pirate captain falls for unhappily affianced seamstress, seamstress finds freedom on board pirate ship, adventures ensue, and besotted couple retires with buried treasure. Merry Shannon’s Branded Ann (2008) turns on a revenge plot and incorporates a ghost story. Catherine Friend’s A Pirate’s Heart (2008) combines a contemporary archival detective plot with an interracial double romance and a treasure hunt featuring a supernatural Caribbean island—and it’s a coming out story. (64)
This draws on a chapter in Garber's earlier book, Novel Approaches to Lesbian History.
Here's the abstract for the chapter:
The chapter draws in most depth from three novels: