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 23
Page 35
... figure . I needed her ancestral power in a world where so much of what I knew myself to be was hidden , veiled , could not appear . Through such a figure I might be able to cut through to the soil of my life . In order to live in this ...
... figure . I needed her ancestral power in a world where so much of what I knew myself to be was hidden , veiled , could not appear . Through such a figure I might be able to cut through to the soil of my life . In order to live in this ...
Page 155
... figures of women loom large . In her painting Tang Ren Jie , or Tang Peo- ple's Street , the canvas is split between ... figure spies on a mixed - race couple in their luxurious house , complete with tiger skin on the wall . In the hands ...
... figures of women loom large . In her painting Tang Ren Jie , or Tang Peo- ple's Street , the canvas is split between ... figure spies on a mixed - race couple in their luxurious house , complete with tiger skin on the wall . In the hands ...
Page 179
... figure as the ground of change . Restoration of women's rights becomes a necessary condition for national freedom . Often in the poems , however , a woman's pain is conveyed as a portion of things as they are , without reference to ...
... figure as the ground of change . Restoration of women's rights becomes a necessary condition for national freedom . Often in the poems , however , a woman's pain is conveyed as a portion of things as they are , without reference to ...
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