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 154
... paintings . The artist arrived in America as a teenager , after the collapse of South Vietnam . The terror of passage in an old freighter is brought out in his Soul Boat . The tiny craft becomes a living body with head and arms ...
... paintings . The artist arrived in America as a teenager , after the collapse of South Vietnam . The terror of passage in an old freighter is brought out in his Soul Boat . The tiny craft becomes a living body with head and arms ...
Page 159
... paintings of deer and buffalo on the dark walls of prehistoric caves , through the fecund forms of tree and leaf and fruit one finds in the chalk and rice drawings on the thresholds of Indian homes , the art of kolum or rangoli ...
... paintings of deer and buffalo on the dark walls of prehistoric caves , through the fecund forms of tree and leaf and fruit one finds in the chalk and rice drawings on the thresholds of Indian homes , the art of kolum or rangoli ...
Page 193
... painted . Did haste consume him , the febrile passage westwards ? Or was it sheer necessity , lack of funds , that sort of thing ? Or then again , was this a deliberate act , a secret signal ? He approaches me , a man with long nails ...
... painted . Did haste consume him , the febrile passage westwards ? Or was it sheer necessity , lack of funds , that sort of thing ? Or then again , was this a deliberate act , a secret signal ? He approaches me , a man with long nails ...
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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