‘Good and Bad Have Been Reduced to the Same Thing'. The Poetry of Charles Ducal
(Hugo Brems) The Low Countries - 1995, № 3, pp. 143-147
The debut of the Flemish poet Charles Ducal, ‘The Marriage' (Het huwelijk, 1987), created quite a stir in poetry-reading circles, first and foremost because of its themes and the way they were treated. The cohabitation of man and woman in marriage was depicted as frustrating, deadening drudgery, a struggle bordering on murder and mayhem. What is more, the humiliating account seemed so autobiographical that there was a rather unfortunate mixture of literary appreciation and succès de scandale. This was a pity, since the poems, with their lapidary cynicism and multi-layered wealth of meaning, did not need such sensationalism. (with four translated poems by Charles Ducal).
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