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 49
... edge of the compound in my grandfather's house in Tiru- vella , wire bedded into earth , then strung in loops of metal onto granite posts . Right by the barbed wire , I saw a woman . How fa- miliar her face seemed . The traditional ...
... edge of the compound in my grandfather's house in Tiru- vella , wire bedded into earth , then strung in loops of metal onto granite posts . Right by the barbed wire , I saw a woman . How fa- miliar her face seemed . The traditional ...
Page 64
... edge of Queens . She was walking home late one night from a movie , this young woman who I shall call Rumana , though that's not her name . Her name does not matter , but she might be you or I. What she went through matters terribly ...
... edge of Queens . She was walking home late one night from a movie , this young woman who I shall call Rumana , though that's not her name . Her name does not matter , but she might be you or I. What she went through matters terribly ...
Page 117
... edge of the water , utterly untouched by bits of metal , hu- man flesh and blood in the lake . Waterlilies the color of sulphur . The old man shut his eyes . He covered his nose and mouth with his hands and tried to stop breathing ...
... edge of the water , utterly untouched by bits of metal , hu- man flesh and blood in the lake . Waterlilies the color of sulphur . The old man shut his eyes . He covered his nose and mouth with his hands and tried to stop breathing ...
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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