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 48
... thought . Not a first thought , for the illusion of the ordi- nary must be left behind . Rather , a thought that reveals snarled , even delirious historical processes . And in saying this , I allude to the individual psyche too . After ...
... thought . Not a first thought , for the illusion of the ordi- nary must be left behind . Rather , a thought that reveals snarled , even delirious historical processes . And in saying this , I allude to the individual psyche too . After ...
Page 107
... thought , thought allied to brutal profiteering the infant's eyes still filled with sores . Consider us crawling forward in thunder and rain , possessions strewn through airports in dusty capitals , small stoppages in unknown places ...
... thought , thought allied to brutal profiteering the infant's eyes still filled with sores . Consider us crawling forward in thunder and rain , possessions strewn through airports in dusty capitals , small stoppages in unknown places ...
Page 183
... thought around him , he argued that remaking a Sita or Savritri should 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 ...
... thought around him , he argued that remaking a Sita or Savritri should 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 ...
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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