Heilige Scheiße‹. Formen der skatologischen Polemik im literarischen Katholizismus Léon Bloys und Theodor Haeckers

The paper addresses the use of faecal and abusive language as a trope in the religious polemics of literary Catholicism, especially in the works by Léon Bloyand Theodor Haecker. Their dirty talk can be interpreted as a way to add emphasis on their own position in interconfessional discussions, in the opposition to alternative literary programs (naturalism) or in the fight against the ideologies of the 20th century, like materialism, positivism and totalitarism. The images and tropes used can be defined as a reaction against the crisis of signification. Scatology is then the only way to describe different subjects of abjection in an equal way and create a language of intensity in an apocalyptical time.