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 36
... mother's mother , who died before I was born , was Elizabeth Kuruvilla . She was born in 1884 and was active in the Nationalist move- ment , an ardent follower of Mohandas Gandhi , and the first woman member of the Legislative Assembly ...
... mother's mother , who died before I was born , was Elizabeth Kuruvilla . She was born in 1884 and was active in the Nationalist move- ment , an ardent follower of Mohandas Gandhi , and the first woman member of the Legislative Assembly ...
Page 177
... Mother ' who must be awoken by her daughter's cry . While in a poem like " Suttee " the bond to the male renders the woman helpless , here the longing to awaken the mother quickens a desire for empowerment , political myth intersecting ...
... Mother ' who must be awoken by her daughter's cry . While in a poem like " Suttee " the bond to the male renders the woman helpless , here the longing to awaken the mother quickens a desire for empowerment , political myth intersecting ...
Page 185
... mother , will you obey that also ? ' It was a question the poet Nalapat Balamaniamma would try to answer . Nalapat Balamaniamma : Mother Love and Matricide alapat Balamaniamma's poems shun overtly political sub- Njects . Time and again ...
... mother , will you obey that also ? ' It was a question the poet Nalapat Balamaniamma would try to answer . Nalapat Balamaniamma : Mother Love and Matricide alapat Balamaniamma's poems shun overtly political sub- Njects . Time and again ...
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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