Transgender Creeks and the Three Figures of Power in Late Liberalism

Abstract

This essay examines the relevance of the concept of biopower and its four seminal figures (the hysterical woman, the Malthusian couple, the masturbating child, and the perverse adult) to our understanding of current formations of late liberal power. Through the example of a far north Australian creek’s attempt to persist in being, this essay argues that new figures and tactics of geontological power are displacing prior biopower ones. It further argues that this displacement demands a radical questioning of queer modes of critical thought.