Obscurantist prose in theory often substitutes for argumentative clarity

Evidence

This process of abstraction is also related to the style of presentation, especially the penchant for writing dense prose sprinkled with obscure but poetic or scientific images after the laconic manner of the master (sic). Sibony, for example, has not been translated into English for the very good reason that he is virtually untranslatable. Even more than Lacan, his style is full of allusive word play that hints at plumbing Unconscious depths but does little to clarify the argument and in fact seems primarily designed to impress the reader with the author’s verbal dexterity and encyclopedic knowledge. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1403

Categorization

• CANDY: A needle for the apparatus of obscurantist academic writing, with the concrete example of an untranslatable theorist.
• XREF: connects to: Obscurity can disguise banality as depth; Sartre rationalized abandoning revision as politically virtuous — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 844