Die Moral der "Abwässer". Emil Staigers Kloakenschelte und Hugo Loetschers Antizipation einer ironischen Gleichung

This paper looks at the so-called ›Zürcher Literaturstreit‹ from a scatological perspective, by focusing on the fecal vocabulary used in this polemic. The provocative potential of such images heralds the revolutionary turmoil in1967/1968, when excrement was used as a symbol of subversion of traditional values and authorities. With regard to extreme positions by Emil Staigerand Theodor W. Adorno, which are exemplary of their notion of art, this paper analyzes Hugo Loetscher’s novel "Abwässer" (1963), bearing in mind that, when Staiger condemned contemporary literature as a »cesspool« at the end of 1966, Loetscher argued that Staiger was referring to his own novel.