The project “LITERATURE, TRANSCENDENCE and AVANTGARDE” (1.1.2008-31.12.2011, Academy of Finland) will explore secular avantgardistic literature which applied old religious theories of language in the attemps to transcend the limits of representation. These attempts show in themes (nothingness, silence, ineffability) and their rhetorical tropes: textual apophasis, paradox and parapraxis (neither affirmation nor negation). This project looks for broad continuities in European literature. The texts under scrutiny here were written by some of the key figures of experimental writing: Hugo BALL (1886-1927), Georges BATAILLE (1897-1962), Paul CELAN (1920-1970) and Isidore ISOU (1925-2007). In their attempts to create a “new art of the word” these authors were influenced by the discourses of medieval negative theology, mysticism and Kabbalism.