Stephanie Berger's debut poetry collection, Interior Femme, cracks the
earth open and exposes the "woman inside." In a sequence of poems that
present variations on the Western feminine archetype and explore the
experience of femininity today, Interior Femme visits many unique
locales, from cemeteries in Brooklyn to canyons in New Mexico to
churches in San Diego, Paris, and Peru. Berger approaches her
subjects--mothers, goddesses, whores, daughters, muses, and movie
stars--from multiple angles, and through her poems she reveals
historical, personal, ontological, social, environmental, literary, and
artistic viewpoints. The poems offer layered perspectives fused with
multiple versions of female representation, as if to underscore the
burden of responsibility, inherited shame, and awesome power that comes
with the position women have occupied throughout history.
At the center of the book is Mnemosyne, goddess of memory and mother of
the nine muses, who is crumbling under the terrific burden of
remembering. In these poems, there is a woman critically
wounded--representing the totality of the Western feminine
imaginary--who is seeking answers to dire questions. Lyrically complex,
sometimes surreal, and often ekphrastic in style and content, Interior
Femme simultaneously offers heartbreak, laughter, comfort, and
empowerment.
