Politiser l’émotion: Enquête militante et épistémologie des passions tristes dans le féminisme radical états-unien

Despite the academic enthusiasm for feminist epistemology, feminist consciousness-
raising circles are predominantly studied as discussion groups rather than as collectives where knowledge is produced. Beyond reinforcing the gendered opposition between “reason” and “emotion,” this perspective obscures the intentions and intuitions of their founders, particularly the conviction that collective work on painful emotions can be a source of knowledge and agency. The U.S. women’s liberation movement asserted and implemented an epistemology of “sad passions,” positioning their supposed emotionality as a more appropriate and ethical form of knowledge than the masculine rationality from which they were excluded. Their activist methods provide valuable insights into fundamental questions regarding emotions in politics, particularly the transition from knowledge to action and how to avoid the depoliticisation inherent in purely therapeutic approaches to social suffering. By emphasising the unique interplay between emotion, theory, and action within the U.S. women’s liberation movement, this article highlights the epistemology of sad passions as an underexplored yet crucial aspect of feminist epistemology.