The Marquise of O's baby, conceived in a swoon, is born of such a lapse. The tango, with a dip, suspends a woman in time.
Poetry skips a beat and compresses the world.
She plays with the paradigm of syncope as it appears in medicine, grammar, music, and poetry. A study of absence among those who traffic in time, her book offers a thrilling look into the lapses where rapture awaits us. Sally O'Driscoll is assistant professor of English and women's studies at Fairfield University. Deirdre M. Mahoney is a freelance translator, who is pusuing her doctoral degree at City University, New York. Verena Andermatt Conley is professor of French and women's studies at Miami University, Ohio.