Audre Lorde's account of the erotic is one of her most widely celebrated contributions to political theory and feminist activism, but her explanation of the term in her brief essay “Uses of the Erotic” is famously oblique and ambiguous. This article develops a detailed, textually grounded interpretation of Lorde's erotic, based on an analysis of how Lorde's essay brings together commitments expressed across her work. I describe four integral elements of Lorde's erotic: feeling, knowledge, power, and concerted action. The erotic is a way of feeling in the work a person does, which makes possible new knowledge about the self and the social environment—particularly to counteract epistemic oppression imposed by an unjust society. The erotic is a source of power by providing vision and energy for actions integrating a person's multiple commitments and political interests. It facilitates concerted action and coalition by enhancing a person's appreciation of their interests and values, while fostering embodied, personal connections that build trust based on shared vulnerability. Thus, the erotic helps build coalitions where genuine differences of perspective and experience can be examined, in resistance against an oppressive society's epistemic distortions.

中文翻译：

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奥德丽·洛德的《情欲作为认知和政治实践》

奥德丽·洛德（Audre Lorde）对色情的描述是她对政治理论和女权主义行动主义最广为人知的贡献之一，但她在她的短文“色情的用途”中对该术语的解释是出了名的间接和模糊。本文基于对洛德的文章如何汇集她在作品中表达的承诺的分析，对洛德的色情作品进行了详细的、基于文本的解释。我描述了洛德情欲的四个不可或缺的要素：情感、知识、力量和一致行动。情色是一种方式感觉在一个人所做的工作中，这使得新的知识关于自我和社会环境——特别是为了抵消不公正社会所施加的认知压迫。色情是一个来源力量通过为整合个人的多重承诺和政治利益的行动提供愿景和能量。它有利于一致行动和联盟通过提高一个人对自己的兴趣和价值观的认识，同时培养基于共同脆弱性建立信任的具体个人联系。因此，情欲有助于建立联盟，在其中可以检验观点和经验的真正差异，以抵抗压迫社会的认知扭曲。