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 27
... dreams , in visions . Sometimes these dreams lead to questions borne in the mind , meanderings of thought . What would it be like to have a house of ... dream might Whose House is This ? 27 Whose House is This? House of a Thousand Doors.
... dreams , in visions . Sometimes these dreams lead to questions borne in the mind , meanderings of thought . What would it be like to have a house of ... dream might Whose House is This ? 27 Whose House is This? House of a Thousand Doors.
Page 39
... dream in . That is , when my dreams have words to them . The gap , the cleft between wordless intimacy and functioning script , is coequal in intensity with the fissures in my daily life , the es- trangements , the castings adrift I ...
... dream in . That is , when my dreams have words to them . The gap , the cleft between wordless intimacy and functioning script , is coequal in intensity with the fissures in my daily life , the es- trangements , the castings adrift I ...
Page 109
... dream repairs as if a woman glimpsed through a doorway whose name is never voiced took green silk in her palms threaded it to a sharp needle , drew the pleats together : a simple motion filled with grace , rhythmic repetition in a time ...
... dream repairs as if a woman glimpsed through a doorway whose name is never voiced took green silk in her palms threaded it to a sharp needle , drew the pleats together : a simple motion filled with grace , rhythmic repetition in a time ...
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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