4 Quotes by Holly Lewis

While poststructuralism has a cynical disdain for terms such as ‘Truth with a capital T’ and ‘Knowledge with a capital K’, the entire edifice depends upon a mysterious ‘Power with a capital P’ (...) A history that is the sum of individual responses to and refractions of Power is no more of a history of human existence than a relay of blinking lights is a history of light. Such a schema is not a history, but a situation, a meaningless existential crisis in which one is positioned arbitrarily.

Phenomenology became the grounds for variants of standpoint epistemology: if a phenomenon seems real, then it is real enough. A Marxist vision of standpoint epistemology, on the other hand, does not privilege individual perception as the arbiter of reality.

Owning one’s sexuality may be an important aspect of personal empowerment, but a queer sex party is no more likely to disrupt capitalist production than a heteronormative grandmothers’ knitting circle.

... but working through racism or sexism in a student consciousness-raising group, at a book club, or on social media is therapy for depoliticized subjects. Therapy is not something to be opposed; but, on its own, it brings about neither reforms nor revolutions.