Description
In She Who Lies Above, Beatriz Hausner brings Hypatia of Alexandria, the fourth-century Byzantine mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, to life. She does so through layered ventriloquism: publishing amorous correspondence from the feminist icon's friend and former student, Synesius the Cyrene, and scribing Hypatia's replies in turn.
These letters are "discovered" by Bettina Ungaro, a librarian and archivist by day, poet by night. She, in turn, collates the correspondence to build a vision of the couple's relationship while writing a kind of postmodern critique of contemporary book and reading culture. These interjections both borrow from and juxtapose writing from ancient times, and, in doing so, explore the evolution of modern knowledge keeping.
The result is a rigorous, hyper-layered collection of poems that are elegiac and erotic; steeped in appreciation for a life of books and the technical and transcendent brilliance their authors can exhibit.
Author: Beatriz Hausner
Publisher: Book*hug Press
Published: 11/07/2023
Pages: 109
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.34lbs
Size: 8.01h x 6.10w x 0.07d
ISBN13: 9781771668200
ISBN10: 1771668202
BISAC Categories:
- Poetry | Subjects & Themes | Love & Erotica
- Poetry | Women Authors
About the Author
Beatriz Hausner was born in Chile and immigrated to Canada with her family when she was a teenager. She has published many poetry books, including The Wardrobe Mistress (2004), Sew Him Up (2010), Enter the Raccoon (2012), and Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (2020). Her prose and poetry have been published in many chapbooks and included in several anthologies, and her books have been published internationally and translated into several languages, including her native Spanish, French, Dutch, and Greek. She is an active participant in the international surrealist movement, and a respected historian and translator of Latin American surrealism. Hausner, who is trilingual, served three terms as President of the Literary Translators' Association of Canada and was Chair of the Public Lending Right Commission. She was also a founding publisher of Quattro Books. Hausner lives in Toronto where she publishes The Philosophical Egg.