The Language of Silence: On the Unspoken and the Unspeakable in Modern Drama

Examining the plays of Maeterlinck, Chekhov, Jean-Jacques Bernard, Pinter, Albee, and Beckett, this critical study exhibits the eloquence with which silence and inarticulateness portray the experience of inadequacy, incompleteness, impermanence, and uncertainty in early-twentieth-century drama. Moving on to post-World War II drama, the author explores the use of noneloquent speech and silence to convey the alienation and isolation engendered by the rise of political humanity.