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 137
Reflections on Postcolonial Experience Meena Alexander. Making up Memory Reflections of a Writer in New York City or many years now , I have lived in Manhattan . The city fronts Fo ' me . It is here that I must make up memory , a memory ...
Reflections on Postcolonial Experience Meena Alexander. Making up Memory Reflections of a Writer in New York City or many years now , I have lived in Manhattan . The city fronts Fo ' me . It is here that I must make up memory , a memory ...
Page 142
... memory sliced up in slabs , remade , inventing what was lost . City blocks chopping up memory , the subway tearing through it , speed releasing the amnesiac bolt that locks in so much of life spent in multiple places . The questions ...
... memory sliced up in slabs , remade , inventing what was lost . City blocks chopping up memory , the subway tearing through it , speed releasing the amnesiac bolt that locks in so much of life spent in multiple places . The questions ...
Page 156
... memory - my memory and the memories of my peo- ple , however dispersed , however distanced ? It seems to me that the powerful configurations of Asian- American art are forged in the crucible of a communal memory . And having said this ...
... memory - my memory and the memories of my peo- ple , however dispersed , however distanced ? It seems to me that the powerful configurations of Asian- American art are forged in the crucible of a communal memory . And having said this ...
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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