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
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Page 46
Reflections on Postcolonial Experience Meena Alexander. Her Garden The mountains crackle they are full of flint the cicada bristles it does not sing in grandmother's garden as mulberry trees gnarled like her hands start their long slide ...
Reflections on Postcolonial Experience Meena Alexander. Her Garden The mountains crackle they are full of flint the cicada bristles it does not sing in grandmother's garden as mulberry trees gnarled like her hands start their long slide ...
Page 47
... garden wall , as the cicada shunts sparks from its wings , I remember her . She died so long before my birth that we are one , entirely as a sky disowned by sun and star : a bleakness beneath my dreams a rare fragrance as of dry ...
... garden wall , as the cicada shunts sparks from its wings , I remember her . She died so long before my birth that we are one , entirely as a sky disowned by sun and star : a bleakness beneath my dreams a rare fragrance as of dry ...
Page 112
Reflections on Postcolonial Experience Meena Alexander. ' A garden inclosed is my sister , my spouse ... ut of her window she sees the garden of pheasants . The em- Operor has been dead for fifteen years . The garden is flooded with ...
Reflections on Postcolonial Experience Meena Alexander. ' A garden inclosed is my sister , my spouse ... ut of her window she sees the garden of pheasants . The em- Operor has been dead for fifteen years . The garden is flooded with ...
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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