The Logistical Pardoner
Wan-Chuan Kao, Washington and Lee University
Conceiving queer subjectivity through identity is a modern reflex. Reading Chaucer’s Pardoner, I argue that logistics provides an alternate framework for approaching premodern gender and sexuality. Logistics is the science of control and governance; the social life of circulation signifies the entanglement of embodiment and desire. As Deborah Cowen argues, queerness emerges from the intensification of capital circulation and organized violence. Queer logistics understands “queer” as a denaturalizing enterprise co-extensive with capital and as a capacity for crafting diverse economies of (human) natures. If modern logistics produces capitalist subjectivity, it is predicated on the premodern logistics of queer identity formation.
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This event is free, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.
Register and Request PaperAbout the Premodern Studies Seminar Series
This Center for Renaissance Studies seminar provides a forum for new approaches to classical, medieval, and early modern studies, allowing scholars from a range of disciplines to share works-in-progress. Organized by Timothy Crowley (Northern Illinois University), Megan Heffernan (DePaul University), Lydia Barnett (Northwestern University), and Christopher Fletcher (Newberry Library).
If you have any questions about the submission process or the seminar in general, please email Christopher Fletcher.