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 44
... child , child so the sun might kiss and not burn Child , unripe child Till the wooden hill dashed suddenly against the swollen pier and shot us into cold sea spray The blackest depths drawn up in pleated waves , my smocking dress ...
... child , child so the sun might kiss and not burn Child , unripe child Till the wooden hill dashed suddenly against the swollen pier and shot us into cold sea spray The blackest depths drawn up in pleated waves , my smocking dress ...
Page 186
... child playing in the compound , hears again in memory the sound of the stream , the music of the wind in the leaves , and feels utterly at peace . Her feminine centrality - the child comes to clutch at her sari's rim , the bees cluster ...
... child playing in the compound , hears again in memory the sound of the stream , the music of the wind in the leaves , and feels utterly at peace . Her feminine centrality - the child comes to clutch at her sari's rim , the bees cluster ...
Page 205
... child I had spent summer months in my grandparental home in coastal Ker- ala , a place of so much water , so many ... child , I was told not to go near the well . Naturally , you might think , this is just the right advice to give a ...
... child I had spent summer months in my grandparental home in coastal Ker- ala , a place of so much water , so many ... child , I was told not to go near the well . Naturally , you might think , this is just the right advice to give a ...
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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