New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession

This essay discusses teaching Chaucer’s Pardoner and his Tale through his queerness and fitness to tell a moral tale. It is informed by ethical reading theory and pursues a comparison between the Pardoner and J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. Rowling’s public comments about trans women have disaffected many fans of her book and film series, and I suggest that wrestling with such dilemmas in the classroom provides students with tools to navigate similar ethical problems outside of an academic setting.