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 194
... comes the voice . A febrile ventriloquism . Her voice comes to me in the darkness of dream , that first theater of sense , where the ' meta- physic of gesture ' * is clarified . Her ankles decked with bells , swathed in her silks , she ...
... comes the voice . A febrile ventriloquism . Her voice comes to me in the darkness of dream , that first theater of sense , where the ' meta- physic of gesture ' * is clarified . Her ankles decked with bells , swathed in her silks , she ...
Page 206
... comes to me out of mist and desert rain , out of well water and water in a blackened cooking pot where I looked in and saw my face : " You come from a long line of well - jumped women . ” Women come to me , countless women , some older ...
... comes to me out of mist and desert rain , out of well water and water in a blackened cooking pot where I looked in and saw my face : " You come from a long line of well - jumped women . ” Women come to me , countless women , some older ...
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... comes to be seen as a metaphor of our times , Meena Alexander's poignant and perceptive book is a welcome addition . Here , the postcolonial condition is addressed in its variety and its particularity : as fiction , criticism , personal ...
... comes to be seen as a metaphor of our times , Meena Alexander's poignant and perceptive book is a welcome addition . Here , the postcolonial condition is addressed in its variety and its particularity : as fiction , criticism , personal ...
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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