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 80
... living as Asian immigrants , a not too visible minority in America . Why could they not feel the predicament of minorities in their own homeland ? Why this terrible need to claim one cultural identity , singular and immovable , for ...
... living as Asian immigrants , a not too visible minority in America . Why could they not feel the predicament of minorities in their own homeland ? Why this terrible need to claim one cultural identity , singular and immovable , for ...
Page 130
... living body . We inhabit a world divided into bits and pieces , locked into nations , cultures , languages , creeds , distinct and multifarious . Through this we find our livelihood as writers . We struggle to make sense , overcome ...
... living body . We inhabit a world divided into bits and pieces , locked into nations , cultures , languages , creeds , distinct and multifarious . Through this we find our livelihood as writers . We struggle to make sense , overcome ...
Page 161
... living in America . The title of one of them , Hey Chinktown ! You killed my father , refuses to leave me . What kind of place can such artists find in America ? The answer is not simple . Place , itself , must be radically re- worked ...
... living in America . The title of one of them , Hey Chinktown ! You killed my father , refuses to leave me . What kind of place can such artists find in America ? The answer is not simple . Place , itself , must be radically re- worked ...
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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