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
Results 1-3 of 19
Page 52
... father died what was left for her ? Heaps and piles of sewing every tiny scrap she saved until the end , samplers with little mottos Honor thy Mother and thy Father Home is best and other such sayings the English woman taught her . She ...
... father died what was left for her ? Heaps and piles of sewing every tiny scrap she saved until the end , samplers with little mottos Honor thy Mother and thy Father Home is best and other such sayings the English woman taught her . She ...
Page 53
... father about the price of candlewax or tobacco . She had no one to care for her when father died . I grew to hate her too . She'd filch rolls of brocade from our dead mother's saris set them in the sun , stare at the knobbles of gold ...
... father about the price of candlewax or tobacco . She had no one to care for her when father died . I grew to hate her too . She'd filch rolls of brocade from our dead mother's saris set them in the sun , stare at the knobbles of gold ...
Page 65
... father took him to , how his father told him to behave impeccably , lifting up knife and fork just so , how coming home the father burst into rage at what he saw as the son's lack of culture . ' And all the while , ' the student told me ...
... father took him to , how his father told him to behave impeccably , lifting up knife and fork just so , how coming home the father burst into rage at what he saw as the son's lack of culture . ' And all the while , ' the student told me ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
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