Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

In this paper, I suggest that a close reading of Cutwolf’s confession and execution in Thomas Nashe’s “The Unfortunate Traveler” reflect early modern cultural practices of biopower. I further argue that in doing so, Nashe is already producing a political rhetoric reminiscent of Foucault’s concept of “state control of the biological.” This is not the feminist concept of bodily control, but the control over life and death that Foucault says is the definition of old sovereignty. My analysis intends to amplify current literature on Nashe’s rhetoric, as well as Foucault’s biopower, precisely by suggesting that Nashe’s Cutwolfe seeks control over both death and afterlife, which anticipates key ideas pertaining to biopower. This biopower exhibition at the gallows reflects a larger, ongoing cultural practice of old sovereignty in early modern England.