Collectively-owned, worker-run. Radical publishing and distribution since 1990.

The Essence of Jargon

The Essence of Jargon

Argot & the Dangerous Classes

Alice Becker-Ho (Author), John McHale (Translator), Roger Farr (Introduction by)

$15.95
  • Publisher: Autonomedia
  • Format: Book
  • Binding: pb
  • Released: Jan 20, 2015
  • ISBN-13: 9781570272066

Details

A poet, translator, and co-editor (of the letters of her late husband, Situationist Guy Debord) who has written extensively on the etymology and history of European slang, Alice Becker-Ho examines argot as a form of self-defense from the State, a code for people who survived outside the law. “In slang, loan words are above all borrowings of one dangerous class from another; that these loan words, confirmed in different slangs, go back to common sources, themselves blended initially into a sort of melting pot before being redistributed via a host of different routes….”

More in this topic