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". |
From inside the book
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Page 4
... colonial pedagogy , cut away from the Arabic that flowed all around , from French , and from my mother tongue Malayalam , even from the sort of English I spoke with my parents and friends . It was as if a white skin had covered over ...
... colonial pedagogy , cut away from the Arabic that flowed all around , from French , and from my mother tongue Malayalam , even from the sort of English I spoke with my parents and friends . It was as if a white skin had covered over ...
Page 82
... colonial . It is through such constraints that the woman's voice pits itself , translating violence . In his essay , " Representative Gov- ernment " ( 1861 ) , John Stuart Mill made the case for despotism . The natives of India were on ...
... colonial . It is through such constraints that the woman's voice pits itself , translating violence . In his essay , " Representative Gov- ernment " ( 1861 ) , John Stuart Mill made the case for despotism . The natives of India were on ...
Page 163
... Colonial Wars and Mental Disorders , " Fanon himself reveals the radical instability of violence , the terrible cycle of dread in which both victim and perpetrator are bound . Indeed , for Fanon , in opposi- tion to a great figure such ...
... Colonial Wars and Mental Disorders , " Fanon himself reveals the radical instability of violence , the terrible cycle of dread in which both victim and perpetrator are bound . Indeed , for Fanon , in opposi- tion to a great figure such ...
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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