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
Results 1-3 of 65
Page 28
... poem , the poem is the music that rose in me , as I came here , a newly married woman to North America . Like " Hotel Al- exandria , " this , too , was a product of my living here . " Hotel Alexandria " I think of as my first American poem ...
... poem , the poem is the music that rose in me , as I came here , a newly married woman to North America . Like " Hotel Al- exandria , " this , too , was a product of my living here . " Hotel Alexandria " I think of as my first American poem ...
Page 37
Reflections on Postcolonial Experience Meena Alexander. questions . One of the poems they had picked was " Poem by the Wellside . " There was an old , old woman in it . I was nervous , never having set foot in an American creative ...
Reflections on Postcolonial Experience Meena Alexander. questions . One of the poems they had picked was " Poem by the Wellside . " There was an old , old woman in it . I was nervous , never having set foot in an American creative ...
Page 180
... poem called " The Temple , " a poem of undeniable eroticism that the epigram from Rabindranath Tagore ( ' My passion shall burn as the flame of Sal- vation ' ) cannot quite mask . One gathers that the poem caused quite a stir when the ...
... poem called " The Temple , " a poem of undeniable eroticism that the epigram from Rabindranath Tagore ( ' My passion shall burn as the flame of Sal- vation ' ) cannot quite mask . One gathers that the poem caused quite a stir when the ...
Other editions - View all
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