EVE SEDGWICK'S AXIOMS
(FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE CLOSET)

First, a definition . . .

axiom: 1. a self-evident or universally recognized truth; maxim. 2. a principle that is accepted as true without proof; postulate. (American Heritage Dictionary)

And now, the seven axioms:

1. People are different from each other (22).

2. The study of sexuality is not coextensive with the study of gender; correspondingly, antihomophobic inquiry is not coextensive with feminist inquiry. But we can't know in advance how they will be different (27).

3. There can't be an a priori decision about how far it will make sense to conceptualize lesbian and gay male identities together. Or separately (36).

4. The immemorial, seemingly ritualized debates on nature versus nurture take place against a very unstable background of tacit assumptions and fantasies about both nature and nurture (40).

5. The historical search for a Great Paradigm Shift may obscure the present conditions of sexual identity (44).

6. The relation of gay studies to debates on the literary canon is, and had best be, tortuous (48).

7. The paths of allo-identification are likely to be strange and recalcitrant. So are the paths of auto-identification (59).