Date of Award

Summer 2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

English

Committee Director

Jeffrey H. Richards

Committee Member

Imtiaz Habib

Committee Member

Edward Jacobs

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E64 C66 2007

Abstract

The outbreak of Barbary captivity in the post-revolutionary period was one of the first significant challenges to American statehood and, more importantly, the rhetoric of liberty that had initially unified and galvanized the otherwise fractioned colonies. The Barbary nations, through politically hostile acts such as piracy and seizure, thus ironically participated in the rendering of abstract democratic principles, embodied by America' military victory over England, into the pragmatic functioning of a new republic. However, the process by which Barbary captivity assisted in the public enunciation of an idealized rhetoric of liberty or language of rights owes more to the cultural associations of Barbary, or the East in general, than the actual political autonomy of those nations. Similarly, the metaphorical resonance of the captivity motif offered the early American literary imagination a highly potent vehicle for the exploration of liberty or independence in a free society. This project will explore the different ways in which Barbary captivity opened up a textual space within which different, often competing, ideologies could stake out the possibilities, or discover the limitations, inherent in the notion of a free society. Three works from this period will be examined: James Cathcart's captivity narrative, Susanna Rowson's play Slaves in Algiers, and Royall Tyler's picaresque novel The Algerine Captive. Each work hones in on a distinct aspect or perceived peculiarity of Barbary culture so as to allow for the transference of certain ideological preconditions or desires onto the captivity motif. This transference, in turn, removes these ideologies from conservative factors such as generic convention or social decorum so that they may be unpacked and picked apart. Barbary captivity thus ironically serves as a gateway between the imperfections of the actual republic and a wishful imagining of its utopian counterpart.

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DOI

10.25777/0t7s-rj02

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