ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to trace the presence of consonant philosophico-critical approaches and motifs in writings that are produced and circulate in very different geographical, political, academic, and disciplinary contexts. It focuses on the work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and shows how the logics of Queer Theory remain Romantic. In Queer Theory, the word 'queer' is arrayed against the pathologizing, normative nominations of established power, but in such a way as to pluralize and show the intimate and ineradicable disarray of not only this particular name, but of all names in particular. Epistemology of the Closet has rapidly become a foundational text, not just for the sub-discipline of 'Queer Theory', but also for cultural theory more generally. Whereas Immanuel Kant's motto for Enlightenment was 'Sapere aude!' (Dare to Know!), Sedgwick's might be effectively summarized as: 'Dare not to know!' Sedgwick's work is among the most persuasive and forceful of recent theoretical developments that investigate the ruses of naming and identity.
