SOURCE: “Ghelderode's War of the Words,” in Southern Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3, April 1974, pp. 273-83.

In the following essay, Landrum examines modern language as a barrier to experiencing reality in Ghelderode's plays, arguing that the playwright has much in common with absurdist dramatists.

“There would almost seem to be virtue in silence, if they could only be silent.”¹ Thus John Killinger describes the confused state of characters in absurdist literature. The statement is equally applicable to the characters created by Michel de Ghelderode. Although this playwright is not ordinarily identified with the theatre of the absurd, Robert Brustein comments that he comes as close as any dramatist in this century to fulfilling Artaud's request for the realization of Breughel's grotesque paintings on the stage.² This connection to Artaud, metaphysical spokesman for the modern theatre of the absurd, has been surprisingly glossed over by most critics of Ghelderode.

Killinger maintains...