Poetry has long been regarded as the least accessible of literary
genres. But how much does the obscurity that confounds readers of a poem
differ from, say, the slang that seduces listeners of hip-hop? Infidel
Poetics examines not only the shared incomprensibilities of poetry and
slang, but poetry's genetic relation to the spectacle of underground
culture.
Charting connections between vernacular poetry, lyric obscurity, and
types of social relations--networks of darkened streets in preindustrial
cities, the historical underworld of taverns and clubs, the subcultures
of the avant-garde--Daniel Tiffany shows that obscurity in poetry has
functioned for hundreds of years as a medium of alternative societies.
For example, he discovers in the submerged tradition of canting poetry
and its eccentric genres--thieves' carols, drinking songs, beggars'
chants--a genealogy of modern nightlife, but also a visible underworld
of social and verbal substance, a demimonde for sale.
Ranging from Anglo-Saxon riddles to Emily Dickinson, from the icy
logos of Parmenides to the monadology of Leibniz, from Mother Goose to
Mallarmé, Infidel Poetics offers an exhilarating account of the
subversive power of obscurity in word, substance, and deed.