The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial ExperienceSouth End Press, 1996 - 223 pages In this book, acclaimed South Asian American poet and novelist Meena Alexander unleashes a fury of prose and poetry to confront the stereotypes and explore the challenges facing postcolonial immigrants in America. Commenting on the history of memory, language, shame, and exile, Alexander poignantly describes the wealth of experiences and imaginings that have shaped her life and writing. Her project: "to make space for what was crossed out in the decorum of femininity, in the high places of classical hierarchy, in the racism of a canonical knowledge, in the obliterations of a national memory ... all this is part of our task, part of the violent, fractured worlds that we must etch into beauty". |
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Page 111
... body , another body , chinmaya deha . This other body is formed within mine , at times with the speed of lightning , at times with the infinite patience of sunlight that strikes at a billowing curtain , muslin puffing and weaving in the ...
... body , another body , chinmaya deha . This other body is formed within mine , at times with the speed of lightning , at times with the infinite patience of sunlight that strikes at a billowing curtain , muslin puffing and weaving in the ...
Page 154
... body , memory , and desire are crucially implicated . Memory is painfully at work in Long Nguyen's paintings . The artist arrived in America as a teenager , after the collapse of South Vietnam . The terror of passage in an old freighter ...
... body , memory , and desire are crucially implicated . Memory is painfully at work in Long Nguyen's paintings . The artist arrived in America as a teenager , after the collapse of South Vietnam . The terror of passage in an old freighter ...
Page 156
... body of the man synonymous with the manifest destiny of the American thrust westward . Elsewhere we witness the terror of desire . The surge of de- sire should hold the body to the world , render the future palpa- ble , grant it color ...
... body of the man synonymous with the manifest destiny of the American thrust westward . Elsewhere we witness the terror of desire . The surge of de- sire should hold the body to the world , render the future palpa- ble , grant it color ...
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aesthetic America artist Ashtamudi Lake Asian Asian-American art Balamaniamma bits blood born breath British burning child cloth colonialism cried culture dance dark death decolonization Delhi dharma Draupadi dream earth edge English eyes face feminine fierce figure filled fire flesh forced Frantz Fanon Gandhi garden girl hair hands Hashmi head Hyderabad imagination India Kathakali Kerala Khartoum Lalithambika language light lines living Malayalam maternal Meena Alexander memory mother mouth Native American never painted Parasurama passion poem poet poetry political postcolonial published river rock Safdar Hashmi San Andreas Fault sari Sarojini Naidu sense sexual shock of arrival Sita skin Skin Song snow Song soul space speak speech stone street struggle tell Tethi Thankam things thought tion Tiruvella tongue torn trees turned Vasco da Gama violence voice walking wall window woman words writing young