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 5
... never able to cut free of the poetic ideology , the tight stanzas of pale , figurative con- straint she had picked up from Arthur Symons and Gosse in her studies in England . I read others , contemporary writers : Audre Lorde , Toni ...
... never able to cut free of the poetic ideology , the tight stanzas of pale , figurative con- straint she had picked up from Arthur Symons and Gosse in her studies in England . I read others , contemporary writers : Audre Lorde , Toni ...
Page 141
... never experienced cold like this , never saw the sky swirl with bits of whiteness . ' I never knew snow as a child . I cannot remember snow . So how can I continue to write here ? ' I put these words down on a piece of paper , fold the ...
... never experienced cold like this , never saw the sky swirl with bits of whiteness . ' I never knew snow as a child . I cannot remember snow . So how can I continue to write here ? ' I put these words down on a piece of paper , fold the ...
Page 183
... never imply femi- nine subservience . Sita's great power was moral ; even Ravana had not dared to touch her . And this moral or spiritual force could never be confused with mere passivity or helplessness . Maternal care could provide ...
... never imply femi- nine subservience . Sita's great power was moral ; even Ravana had not dared to touch her . And this moral or spiritual force could never be confused with mere passivity or helplessness . Maternal care could provide ...
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Common terms and phrases
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