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 11
... tongue , has always been there by its side , indeed alongside any other lan- guage I have used . What is my mother tongue now , if not a bur- ied stream ? At times , in America , I feel my mother tongue approaches the condition of dream ...
... tongue , has always been there by its side , indeed alongside any other lan- guage I have used . What is my mother tongue now , if not a bur- ied stream ? At times , in America , I feel my mother tongue approaches the condition of dream ...
Page 22
... Tongue thick with soil I roared , I belched my grief . I was a catch in God's throat , a giggle , a gut gripe I was vermilion threaded into rice paper sheathe of sun and moon time's masquerade Slit in the vulva as the head of the too ...
... Tongue thick with soil I roared , I belched my grief . I was a catch in God's throat , a giggle , a gut gripe I was vermilion threaded into rice paper sheathe of sun and moon time's masquerade Slit in the vulva as the head of the too ...
Page 38
... tongue , which is pure speech , which I maintain in its uncluttered state in my head by virtue of living in North America hardly speaking it at all . Because grandmothers speak and die , and grand- fathers believe in immortality ...
... tongue , which is pure speech , which I maintain in its uncluttered state in my head by virtue of living in North America hardly speaking it at all . Because grandmothers speak and die , and grand- fathers believe in immortality ...
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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