Date of Award

Spring 2026

Language

English

Embargo Period

5-16-2026

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of English

Program

English

First Advisor

Wendy Roberts

Second Advisor

Ineke Murakami

Keywords

Pirates, gender fluidity, gender identity, cross-dressing

Subject Categories

Other English Language and Literature

Abstract

This thesis examines piracy, cross-dressing, gender fluidity, and ambiguous identity in the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read as represented in A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson. This thesis argues that Johnson’s narrative reshapes their piracy through feminine frameworks to align them with patriarchal expectations of womanhood and fixed identity. Specifically, he uses the breast and the belly as sites of gendered truth, attempting to reduce their masculine presentation as mere performance rather than intrinsic identity.

However, despite Johnson’s attempt at narrative authority, Bonny and Read ultimately resist such containment. Through close readings of both A General History of the Pyrates and The Tryals of Captain John Rackham and other Pyrates, it becomes clear that Bonny and Read’s identities remain unstable. Their bodies actively resist containment and become ways in which they destabilize the previously defined lines of the gender binary, as well as the divide between nature and performance. Thus, their femininity seems just as performative as their masculinity.

License

This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

Download

Share

COinS