DVD ~ Kal Penn
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by Ronald Takaki
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by Lavina Shankar
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by Jhumpa Lahiri
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by Women of South Asian Descent Collective
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The poems, stories, photographs, and essays in the American Book Award-winning anthology Contours of the Heart speak to almost every aspect of the South Asian experience in North America. These diverse voices map their own New World, rendering in quirky detail the complexities and ironies of living in two places at the same time. The bride of an arranged marriage finds a letter from her husband's male lover and consoles herself by chanting the names of familiar spices, first in English, then in Hindi; two "Indian" women--one a Zoroastrian Gujarati, the other a Yupik Eskimo--forge powerful bonds despite their cultural differences; the daughter of a famous Indian American guru accidentally blows her mother's lavish ashram into smithereens, but insists "I was just a good daughter. Like all of us, I guess." Throughout this anthology, South Asians engage in an ongoing dialogue between different notions of homeland and exile, personal identity and familial duty. In the end, many find that they are not forced to choose between South Asian and North American cultures--that they can instead create their own culture, one that values its heritage yet is vibrant and new. In her poem "We the Indian Women in America," for example, Chitra Banerjee Divarkaruni writes, "And what we want is this: for us and our daughters, / India and America, / the best of both together. If you tell us we cannot have / it, we refuse to believe you (for we have learned / to say no)...." Despite the horrid academese of the editors' introduction, Contours of the Heart is a fascinating and lively document, its very diversity providing the best possible antidote to cultural stereotypes.
Product Description
This book comes at a critical time in the history of South Asians in North America. As the number of South Asian immigrants increases in the United States and Canada, a familiar tension has been the immigrant conflict between home as a physical site in North America and home as an emotional concept tied to the ancestral country, and the second generation's questioning of both notions. This anthology critically explores this familiar tension and the concept of "home." It focuses on the transformative experiences that lead individuals to declare or reject new forms of belonging in North America. Setting up "home" may require contesting existing roles, inventing hybrid identities, or seeking social and political change.
The poems, stories, photographs, and essays in the American Book Award-winning anthology Contours of the Heart speak to almost every aspect of the South Asian experience in North America. These diverse voices map their own New World, rendering in quirky detail the complexities and ironies of living in two places at the same time. The bride of an arranged marriage finds a letter from her husband's male lover and consoles herself by chanting the names of familiar spices, first in English, then in Hindi; two "Indian" women--one a Zoroastrian Gujarati, the other a Yupik Eskimo--forge powerful bonds despite their cultural differences; the daughter of a famous Indian American guru accidentally blows her mother's lavish ashram into smithereens, but insists "I was just a good daughter. Like all of us, I guess." Throughout this anthology, South Asians engage in an ongoing dialogue between different notions of homeland and exile, personal identity and familial duty. In the end, many find that they are not forced to choose between South Asian and North American cultures--that they can instead create their own culture, one that values its heritage yet is vibrant and new. In her poem "We the Indian Women in America," for example, Chitra Banerjee Divarkaruni writes, "And what we want is this: for us and our daughters, / India and America, / the best of both together. If you tell us we cannot have / it, we refuse to believe you (for we have learned / to say no)...." Despite the horrid academese of the editors' introduction, Contours of the Heart is a fascinating and lively document, its very diversity providing the best possible antidote to cultural stereotypes.
Product Description
This book comes at a critical time in the history of South Asians in North America. As the number of South Asian immigrants increases in the United States and Canada, a familiar tension has been the immigrant conflict between home as a physical site in North America and home as an emotional concept tied to the ancestral country, and the second generation's questioning of both notions. This anthology critically explores this familiar tension and the concept of "home." It focuses on the transformative experiences that lead individuals to declare or reject new forms of belonging in North America. Setting up "home" may require contesting existing roles, inventing hybrid identities, or seeking social and political change.
The anthology challenges undifferentiated, stereotypical images of South Asians in North America, portraying instead the subtleties of their varied, sometimes invisible experiences. It includes fiction, poetry, essays, and photography.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
On some days, I wake up with the jangled edges of letters from various alphabets colliding with great fury in the pit of my stomach. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
immigrant bourgeoisie, diasporic identity Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
South Asian, Indian American, Miss Vindaloo, New York, Asian American, Sakina Bano, Los Angeles, United States, Asian Indian, Mississippi Masala, Aunt Inez, Aunt Mabel, African American, Kama Sutra, Kanthi Aunty, Mira Nair, Sikander Khan, Main Street, Sabir Street, Sohan Singh, Uncle Joseph, Karwa Chauth, Race Course Road, San Francisco, South African New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
On some days, I wake up with the jangled edges of letters from various alphabets colliding with great fury in the pit of my stomach. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
immigrant bourgeoisie, diasporic identity Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
South Asian, Indian American, Miss Vindaloo, New York, Asian American, Sakina Bano, Los Angeles, United States, Asian Indian, Mississippi Masala, Aunt Inez, Aunt Mabel, African American, Kama Sutra, Kanthi Aunty, Mira Nair, Sikander Khan, Main Street, Sabir Street, Sohan Singh, Uncle Joseph, Karwa Chauth, Race Course Road, San Francisco, South African New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 47
books:
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25
books
cite this book:
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- Out on Main Street & Other Stories by Shani Mootoo on page 53, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Funny Boy (Harvest Book) by Shyam Selvadurai on page 261, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- River and Bridge by Meena Alexander in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Group Portrait (Oxford India Paperbacks) by Saleem Peeradina in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 47 books this book cites
- A Concise Companion to Twentieth-Century American Poetry (Concise Companions to Literature and Culture) by Stephen Fredman on page 157, and page 171
- The Borders in All of Us: New Approaches to Global Diasporic Societies by Williams, Vasquez, Furusa Little on page 246, and page 247
- A Concise Companion to Twentieth-Century American Poetry (Concise Companions to Literature and Culture) by Stephen Fredman on page 157, and page 171
- Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing by Rajini Srikanth on page 10, and Back Matter
- Diaspora and Multiculturalism: Common Traditions and New Developments (Cross Cultures 66) by Monika Fludernik on page 38, and page 54
See all 25 books citing this book
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