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 21
... skin of my tongue , wrapping up stones so sweet to suck . I skipped through dirt and muck the short streams singing , green scales dropped from my eyes glittering in pieces . I cannot spell it out but when the ... Skin Song 21 Skin Song.
... skin of my tongue , wrapping up stones so sweet to suck . I skipped through dirt and muck the short streams singing , green scales dropped from my eyes glittering in pieces . I cannot spell it out but when the ... Skin Song 21 Skin Song.
Page 26
... skin dances on a bloodied thing mirroring paradise . * Note : You ask how " Skin Song " came to be written . In the last few years , after my daughter's birth , I turned to work on a series of poems about childbirth and its aftermath ...
... skin dances on a bloodied thing mirroring paradise . * Note : You ask how " Skin Song " came to be written . In the last few years , after my daughter's birth , I turned to work on a series of poems about childbirth and its aftermath ...
Page 170
... skin of things as they are . And it is the skin of things as they are and the fierce , out- caste power of the female imagination that one needs to talk about . The social constructions of a hierarchical society in 170 The SHOCK OF ARRIVAL.
... skin of things as they are . And it is the skin of things as they are and the fierce , out- caste power of the female imagination that one needs to talk about . The social constructions of a hierarchical society in 170 The SHOCK OF ARRIVAL.
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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