'A-literature-of-substitution': Vicarious sacrifice in the writings of Gertrud von Le Fort

Vicarious sacrifice and substitution are among the central ideas to emerge in Gertrud von le Fort's prose and verse after her conversion to Catholicis m in 1926. The doctrine plays an important thematic role in her writing, bu t this article will demonstrate how le Fort incorporates its theological ra mifications into her fiction as a means of developing a 'sacramental realis m' within which divine grace is shown to be at work. A precedent for this i s to be found in many writings from the French literary renouveau catholiqu e, thus a treatment of Paul Claudel's drama L'Annonce faite a marie (1920_ will elucidate an analysis of le Fort's use of the doctrine of substitution , taking her inner emigration Novelle Die Abberufung der Jungfrau von Barby (1940) as a sample text. An appreciation of the workings of substitution i s prerequisitie to a reading of le Fort's creative work, particularly durin g her 'inner emigration' in the Third Reich, and to an assessment of her ov erall contribution to twentieth-century German literature.