Black Sails, Rainbow Flag: Examining Queer Representations in Film and Television

Abstract: This thesis aims to present, discuss, and analyze issues relating to queer representations in film and television. The thesis focuses on existing tropes, such as queer coding, queerbaiting, and the “Bury Your Gays” trope that are prevalent in contemporary media, and applies the analysis of these tropes to a case study based on the television series Black Sails (2014-2017). The analysis explores the main research question: in what way does Black Sails subvert or reproduce existing queer tropes in film and television? This then leads to the discussion of three aspects: the way queer sexual identities are represented overall, what representational strategies are employed by the series in a number of episodes, and whether or not these representations reproduce or subvert media tropes.