The Kingdom of the Subjunctive

by Suzanne Wise

Riddled with mistranslations, misappropriations, and malapropisms, Suzanne Wise imagines the world as a postmodern police state under tables turn, tea carts explode, floorboards melt, ceilings sail off. Like the rebel girls in her poem "The Ghetto of Blasphemy," Wise takes aim at the official rhetoric of patriarchy and reveals gender to be a tattered assemblage pieced together from a looted past. Wise charts the self through an inquiry into language, moving from World War II to a future where victim, oppressor, and bystander pose as the same person. Darkly comic, deeply feminist, The Kingdom of the Subjunctive is the last territory, an if-only border zone where doubt and desire are the laws of the land.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Aimee]

Thought provoking poetry. I was very taken by the variety of ways the author structured her poems.

[Jude Brigley]

I really enjoyed reading these carefully constructed and thought-provoking poems which were full of surprises and insights.