“I Will Have Your Surrender”: British Colonization and the Rape of Jamie Fraser

Abstract

In the Starz time-travel drama Outlander, World War II nurse Claire Randall is transported back to 1743 while visiting Scotland. While Claire initially tries to travel back to her husband Frank, she soon becomes caught up in rebellion and marries Scottish Jamie Fraser. Claire, an Englishwoman, is forced to acknowledge the harsh realities of British colonial rule in Scotland. Frank’s ancestor, British Captain “Black Jack” Randall, serves as a terrifying synecdoche for the colonization of Scotland. In this article, the author argues that Black Jack’s obsession with and eventual capture, torture, and rape of Jamie force both Claire and the viewer to bear witness not only to Jamie’s own suffering but also to the devastating colonization of Scotland. Outlander constructs Jamie as a wild, romantic hero—paralleling Claire’s romanticization of Scotland—and then deconstructs this narrative as it forces its heroine to confront the devastation wrought by her own empire throughout history.