Juxtaposing the diction of surrealism with Ovid, Callimachus, and popular music-punk and new wave-the poems in Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart concern themselves with various aspects of Eros. From wistful romance to explicit sex, these poems are inspired by the troubadour poets of Provence and Italy, and invoke such historical figures as the Byzantine Empress Theodora and her husband, Emperor Justinian, not to mention the Countess of Dia-Beatriz, a major poet of the troubadour tradition; these are Hausner's "alter voices," expressing permutations of presence, absence, conquest, and loss. Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart reaches back through the millennia to create an unexpected, unconventional, and contemporary exploration of one of humanity's oldest pleasures.
