“The Whore That Lost Everything”: The Tyranny of Law and the Queer Feminisation of Soft Power as Explored in Black Sails

Abstract Black Sails is an historical drama written as a prequel to Treasure Island. It did this by weaving the history surrounding the Pirate Republic of New Providence Island around fiction to create a compelling narrative exploring the force and evils of law and empire, and the lengths that some will go to in order to resist and be free. This paper will examine Black Sails as a social discourse text in order to critique the impact and tyranny, yet inevitability, of the law, and how soft power is feminised but requires queerness to be effective.