Counter-insurgency, subalternity and spatial relations: interrogating court-martial narratives of the Nore mutiny of 1797

Featherstone, D. (2009) Counter-insurgency, subalternity and spatial relations: interrogating court-martial narratives of the Nore mutiny of 1797. South African Historical Journal, 61(4), pp. 766-787. (doi: 10.1080/02582470903500418)

Abstract

This article argues that courts-martial are a distinctive form of counter-insurgent voyage narrative. It seeks to foreground the performances of subaltern speech within the context of counter-insurgent practices through a detailed discussion of the court-martial of six mutineers from the Grampus for their involvement in the mutiny at the Nore in 1797. I draw on Ranajit Guha's influential account of modes of historiography that have either served counter-insurgent discourses, or failed to dislocate the occlusion of subaltern agency at work in official accounts. Through a critical discussion of Guha's work, I argue for the need to engage with the spatial as well as temporal construction of such narratives. This permits a focus on the co-production and co-emergence of subaltern agency in the working of such narratives. Drawing on Miles Ogborn's arguments about how 'writing travels', I argue for the importance of understanding the ways subaltern texts and speech are formed through dynamic spatial practices. The article examines in detail aspects of the court-martial drawing attention to the ways sailors circumvented the logics of the trial to assert the justice of their actions and to constitute assertive subaltern political identities. It concludes by arguing that the court-martial did not function simply as an event which was successful in producing repentant subjects. Rather it was a site of continuing contestation and for the articulation of mutinous dispositions.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Featherstone, Professor David
• Authors: Featherstone, D.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: South African Historical Journal
• ISSN: 0258-2473