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 3
... desire - and what else might a poem be ? -was dangerous , filled with disclosures that could split the fine skin of decorum , threaten hierarchy , the accustomed flow of household , even pub- lic order . But to a young girl in a Syrian ...
... desire - and what else might a poem be ? -was dangerous , filled with disclosures that could split the fine skin of decorum , threaten hierarchy , the accustomed flow of household , even pub- lic order . But to a young girl in a Syrian ...
Page 156
... desire . The surge of de- sire should hold the body to the world , render the future palpa- ble , grant it color and scent and taste , limn it within the horizon of longing fulfilled . The repression of desire can result in mutila- tion ...
... desire . The surge of de- sire should hold the body to the world , render the future palpa- ble , grant it color and scent and taste , limn it within the horizon of longing fulfilled . The repression of desire can result in mutila- tion ...
Page 180
... desire is so terrible that the speaker is already dead . Passion unrequited has killed her . People come for- ward , bearing tribute , powerless to tell of the death within her . In a perfect masking of her post - humous condition , she ...
... desire is so terrible that the speaker is already dead . Passion unrequited has killed her . People come for- ward , bearing tribute , powerless to tell of the death within her . In a perfect masking of her post - humous condition , she ...
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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