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 36
... marked them . A few years after I arrived in this country , I lived for six months in a Midwestern town . I was invited to visit the creative writing class at the university . The project was innocuous enough . The professor was ...
... marked them . A few years after I arrived in this country , I lived for six months in a Midwestern town . I was invited to visit the creative writing class at the university . The project was innocuous enough . The professor was ...
Page 64
... marked by one's body , but how is one marked ? ' What wonderful English you speak , ' a young woman of South Asian origin is told , a woman in her twenties , utterly American I would have thought . ' Where are you from ? ' they ask her ...
... marked by one's body , but how is one marked ? ' What wonderful English you speak , ' a young woman of South Asian origin is told , a woman in her twenties , utterly American I would have thought . ' Where are you from ? ' they ask her ...
Page 94
... marked Burlington Northern marked Milwaukee . In the pitch black holes between the rails , debris of unnumbered lives , tin cans , chipped glass worn car tires , the body of a dead hawk its wings clapping in a dry wind that jars the ...
... marked Burlington Northern marked Milwaukee . In the pitch black holes between the rails , debris of unnumbered lives , tin cans , chipped glass worn car tires , the body of a dead hawk its wings clapping in a dry wind that jars the ...
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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