The Virtuous Spy : From Major John André (1798) to Captain Thorne in Secret Service (1895)

KAČER, Tomáš. The Virtuous Spy : From Major John André (1798) to Captain Thorne in Secret Service (1895). In Biennial conference of the Czech and Slovak Association for American Studies and 22nd International Colloqium of American Studies, September 12-14, 2019, Palacký University, Olomouc. 2019.

Basic information

• Original name: The Virtuous Spy : From Major John André (1798) to Captain Thorne in Secret Service (1895)
• Name in Czech: Ctnostný zvěd : od majora Johna Andrého (1798) ke kapitánu Thornovi ve Výzvědné službě (1895
• Authors: KAČER, Tomáš.
• Edition: Biennial conference of the Czech and Slovak Association for American Studies and 22nd International Colloqium of American Studies, September 12-14, 2019, Palacký University, Olomouc, 2019.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Conference abstract
• Field of Study: 60206 Specific literatures
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: American drama; 18th Century; 19th Century; secret service; spy thriller
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

André, the first U.S. tragedy in verse, is one of the earliest American plays. Written by William Dunlap in 1798, it focuses on a crucial episode of the Revolutionary War, that of a capture, conviction, and execution of Major John André, a British military spy. But André was also a distinguished soldier respected by both sides of the conflict and a popular figure among American civilians. The play raises various moral issues and asks: what to do when a spy is one of us? Despite being a British soldier, Major André was seen as a representative of American (republican) values such as honesty, faithfulness, and the love of freedom in the context of the American Revolution. The tragedy André is an early spy drama that introduces a character of a spy the audience may identify with, and through whose personage they may, in effect, reassess their political and moral positions. A similar mechanism is introduced in Secret Service by William Gillette (1895), a sensational melodrama and a spy thriller from the Civil War. Is the gallant Southerner, Captain Thorne, really a Northern spy? His nationalist fervor and an unwavering moral stance force the postbellum audience to question their loyalties again as with André a hundred years earlier. The conference presentation will compare the two plays in their respective contexts and show how the personage of the virtuous spy contributed to a reassessment of values of respective postwar American identities.

Links

• MUNI/A/1396/2018, interní kód MU: Name: Researching Communication in English: Paradigms, Strategies, Developments (Acronym: RCE)

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A