French Literature Reviews - 2026
Anne Duprat, Histoire du captif. Un paradigme littéraire, de l'Antiquité au XVIIe siècle
Other Literary Studies
Review published in Acta Fabula (November 2023, vol. 24, no. 10): "Stories That Captivate", by Clémence Jaime
While the motif of pirate abduction has accompanied the history of human and material circulation in the Mediterranean since antiquity, the rise of privateering from the mid-sixteenth century onward spread throughout European literature a *corpus captivitatis* of unprecedented scale, comprising tales of kidnapping and detention, ransom, escape, and homecoming.
Histoire du captif analyzes the synergy between eyewitness testimony and literary crafting that granted unprecedented power to the classical paradigm of captivity in Barbary, leading up to the rise of Atlantic piracy in the early eighteenth century. Moving from experiential accounts to political fables and novelistic episodes, the success of the captive's tale helped promote the singularity of atypical human journeys in search of exemplary status. It also demonstrates that, much like the involuntary adventures experienced by the captive, detours into the imagination are never one-way trips.
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Press review on the publisher's website…
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Table of Contents
Foreword
Note on the presentation of sources within the text
Introduction. The Captive's Tale, or the Journey Without Repentance
The Literary Paradigm, Between Image and Narrative
The "Captive's Tale", Between Factual Account and Fiction
Chapter One
Contexts, Frameworks, Forms
Contexts: Privateering and Piracy in the Mediterranean (5th C. BC – 16th C.)
Piracy: A Matter of Law or Politics?
Captives of War and Privateering
Barbary as the Pirate's World
The Framework of the Story: The Barbary Space (1571–1683)
Corsairs and Pirates: The Stakes of a Distinction
From Privateering to Piracy: The Limits of a Paradigm
The "Story" and Its Narrative Construction
The Plot: Basic Schema and Variants
Division, Omission, and Transformation of a Stage
Forms and Functions of the Narrative
"Bacchus Abducted by Pirates", or the Idealizing Narrative
The "Happy Slave": Reparation and Compensation
"The King of Garba's Fiancée", or the Alternative Narrative
Chapter II
The Captive's Constancy and Inconstancy, from Homer to Boccaccio
The Abducted Hero: Narrative Transparency in the Odyssey
Wily Speech and Imaginary Pirates
Suspense, Curiosity, or Surprise: The Narrative Structure of Epic Abduction
The Greek Novel, or the Tale of the Female Captive (2nd–4th C.)
The Captivity Episode: Artifice and Novelistic Reality
Chariton of Aphrodisias: Crime and Reparation
Achilles Tatius: The Spectacle of Abduction
Heliodorus of Emesa: Transport and Revelation
Tales of Barbary: Games of Love and Fortune in Secular Narrative (14th Century)
Boccaccio or the Mediterranean as an Undivided Space: "Landolfo Rufolo Becomes a Corsair" (Decameron, II, 4) and "The Tale of Constance" (V, 2)
Civilizing Barbarism, or the Two Tales of "Cimon the Wild" (V, 1)
Bartolomea (II, 10), Alatiel (II, 7), and Ravishment
Chaucer and the Recovered Ideal: The Odyssey of Princess Constance (The Canterbury Tales)
Islam and Christendom: Toward a Frontier Imaginary (15th–16th C.)
Niccolò degli Albizzi in Barbary (A. Firenzuola, 1525)
From Bandello to Camus: The Invention of the Barbarian
Morals of the Tragic Tale (1550–1600)
From the "Vengeance of the Moor" to the "Tragedy of the Cruel Moor" (1607)
Eugène, Granadan History, and the Expulsion of the Locusts (J.P. Camus, 1623)
Chapter III
True Captive Tales / True Tales of the Captive (1580–1683)
The Framed Narrative: Literature and Redemption
The Witness as Hostage: Literature of the Redemptive Orders (1580–1715)
"Diálogo de los mártires": The Martyrology Model in Spanish Privateering Accounts (1575–1630)
"News from Barbary": The Genre of English Captivity Narratives (1580–1640)
True Stories: The Invention of a Testimony Aesthetic (1627–1683)
The Tragic and Maritime History of João Mascarenhas (Lisbon, 1627)
Emmanuel d'Aranda at the University of the Algiers Bagne (Brussels, 1656)
The True Novel of Sieur Mouëtte's Captivity in Morocco (1683)
Extraordinary Stories: Between Fiction and Document
The True Account: Reading Contract, Reception, and Critique
External Critique: Authenticity in Question
Internal Critique: The Verisimilitude of Extraordinary Accounts
Beyond True and False: The Aesthetic Value of Testimony
Chapter IV
Fiction and Values: The Barbary Stage (1592–1640)
Comedias de cautivos (Spain, 1580–1615)
Life in Algiers [ca. 1583]: Redeeming the Living
Lope de Vega's The Captives of Algiers [c. 1598]: A Comedy of Purification
The Bagnes of Algiers and the Power of Illusion
The Valiant Spaniard, The Hero and His Double
Oviedo's The Great Sultana Catalina: Birth of the Eagle-Lion
Moor-, Turk-, and Captivity Plays (England, 1592–1624)
Imaginary Geographies: The World of Privateering in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
From Marlowe to Shakespeare: Commercial Intrigues and the Logic of Exchange
Robert Daborne vs. Philip Massinger: Must the Pirate Die?
Corsair Comedies and Tragicomedies (France, 1630–1656)
Privateering on Stage in the 1630s: The Heroic-Sentimental Turn
Granadans and Barbary Corsairs (1630–1670)
Comic Galleys, from Rotrou's The Captives (1640) to Scapin's Deceptions (1671)
Chapter V
Grand Entertainment: Barbary Romances, Tales, and Novellas in France and Spain (1615–1689)
Barbary Between Heaven and Earth (Spain, 1615–1618)
The Generous Lover, The English Spanish Lady, Ana Felix, and the Return of the Excluded Third
The Tale of the Captive and His Master: Marcos de Obregón and the Mystery of Algiers
Periander and Auristela vs. Persiles and Sigismund: The Two Journeys of Northern History
The Design of Northern History: Narrative Warp and Weft
Twists and Turns of the French Baroque Novel: The Grand Design (1620–1645)
Polexander and Ravishment
Devotion and Entertainment: The Dual Vocation of Adventure
From the Great Leap to the Great Escape
The Moorish Mirror, or Three Exemplary Tales (1666–1682)
The Calendar of Old Men and The King of Garba's Fiancée: "Seafarers Are Always Ready to Do Good" (1666)
Zayde, A Spanish History and the Dual Ideal (1670)
The Revolutionary "Tale of Prince Ali" (1689)
Conclusion
The "Captive's Tale": A Dated Paradigm
The End of the Detour
Endnotes: Excerpts of Cited Texts in Their Original Languages
Bibliography
Index
This scholarly study traces the evolution of captivity narratives from ancient epic poetry and Greek novels to early modern European literature. By examining the intersection of eyewitness testimony and literary invention, the author illuminates how historical realities of Mediterranean privateering and Barbary corsairs shaped fictional forms. The work spans foundational texts by Homer and Boccaccio, Spanish comedia, English drama, and French baroque novels, revealing how tales of detention and ransom captivated readers across linguistic and cultural borders over centuries.
Researchers and students interested in comparative literature, historical mentalities, and early modern narrative genres will find this volume particularly valuable. It offers essential insights into how the figure of the captive became a vehicle for exploring identity, alterity, and the interplay between fact and fiction. Scholars of cultural history and Mediterranean studies can use its detailed analyses to better understand the enduring impact of maritime conflict and captivity on Western imaginative traditions.