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 86
... forced exodus of civilians- when crystallized into art , reveal not merely the extreme , en- forced condition , but also the hidden structures of a world previously taken for granted , a world in which women have not often been at ease ...
... forced exodus of civilians- when crystallized into art , reveal not merely the extreme , en- forced condition , but also the hidden structures of a world previously taken for granted , a world in which women have not often been at ease ...
Page 158
... forced to confront when reckoning with the market forces that marginalize or tokenize the work , as well as in intimate dealings with human others , dealings which enforce the sometimes painful , sometimes exhilarating disjunctions en- ...
... forced to confront when reckoning with the market forces that marginalize or tokenize the work , as well as in intimate dealings with human others , dealings which enforce the sometimes painful , sometimes exhilarating disjunctions en- ...
Page 191
... forced to confront her own past self . But this means facing up to the sexual rage that forced her outwards , a fierce pain the politi- cal world has never quite assuaged . Stumbling on this self she has constantly fled , the heroine ...
... forced to confront her own past self . But this means facing up to the sexual rage that forced her outwards , a fierce pain the politi- cal world has never quite assuaged . Stumbling on this self she has constantly fled , the heroine ...
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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