Contours of the Heart
South Asians Map North America
Published on 19. March 1998
Book
Paperback/Softback
242 pages
978-1-889876-00-9 (ISBN)
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 \u0022home.\u0022 It focuses on the transformative experiences that lead individuals to declare or reject new forms of belonging in North America. Setting up \u0022home\u0022 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.
Reviews / Votes
"There is an explosion of energy and talent in this book. Through fiction, poetry, essay, interview and memoir, South Asian American/Canadian writers depict a diversity of lives: taxi-drivers, computer company owners, aspiring rockstars, rebellious sisters, gay couples, children who feign sleep to listen in on their elders, elders petrified about dying in America. Contours of the Heart is a wonderful testament to the ways in which the literatures of North America and of South Asia are being enriched by writings which stir up and recombine the continents." --Kirin Narayan, author of Storytellers, Saints and Scoundrels and Love, Stars, and All That "Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America is a splendid collection: as rich and varied as the Indian sub-continent itself. There could be no better proof--if proof were needed--of the extraordinary talent, dynamism, and energy of the South Asian diaspora in North America." --Amitav Ghosh, author of The Shadow Lines in an Antique Land and The Circle of ReasonMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Philadelphia PA
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Illustrations, ports.
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 127 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-889876-00-9 (9781889876009)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Sunaina Maira is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who is doing her dissertation research on the ethnic identity development of second-generation Indian Americans. Rajini Srikanth teaches literature and Women's Studies at Tufts University and Wellesley College and is co-editor of Closing the Gap: South Asian Americans in Asian America (Temple).
Content
CONTENTS Forward Abraham Verghese Introduction Sunaina Maira & Rajini Srikanth Unrolling the Map Spelling Bee Anu Mitra San Andreas Fault Meena Alexander For James and Buffalo: Who Launched Me Off Rajini Srikanth Michigan Basement II Saleem Peeradina The Great American Movie Script Roshni Rustomji-Kerns Excerpts from "In Search of Evanescence" Snow on the Desert Agha Shahid Ali Out on Main St. Shani Mootoo Finding the Natives Taxi Meters and Plexiglass Partitions Vivek Bald A Difference of Background Litu Kabir Flushing Meadows Park Sunita Sunder Mukhi Signs of Belonging Naheed Islam In the Office, the Florescence of Computers Blinds Me Purvi Shah I Want to Give You Devotion Ameena Meer Passage to North America S. Shankar Miss Vindaloo Natasha Singh emerald's bubble Aly Remtulla Visualizing Three Continents: An Interview with Filmmaker Mira Nair Sunaina Maira & Rajini Srikanth Jumbee Curse Marina Budhos Sounding the Challenge Changes Amitava Kumar Felicia Mahumd Rahman Moments of Identity in Film Bakirathi Mani The Moon and My Mother Himani Bannerji Convention Fairy Tale Anjalee Deshpande Divided Consciousness Amidst a New Orientalism: South Asian American Identity Formation on Campus Sucheta Doshi The Lakshman Rekha: A Fable S. Bari Desh: The Contradictions of Homeland Vijay Prashad A Sketch from the Campaign in the North Vijay Seshadri Lifeline Inventing Territories For Sylvia: Two Poems (Empty Spaces, Untitled) Abraham Verghese Lahore in the Sky Sunaina Maira Excerpts from Funny Boy Shyam Selvadurai Tea-time Kavita Sharma We the Indian Women in America Chitra Divakaruni Harderson Park Days Jaykumar Menon A Better Life Diane Mehta Excerpts from "Once Upon an Elephant" Ashok Mathur The Fat Man Sings: a Personal Reflection on the Music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Somini Sengupta Returning to Camp Beyond the Walls, Amreeka Tahira Naqvi Language Sharmili Majmudar Kismet Sanjay Nigam Under the Gravity of Some Thirty Odd Years An Archive of Myself Darius Cooper The Smells of Home Sandip Roy Pitaji's Flute Reena Sharma Mother In Iowa Minal Hajratwala Counting the Ways Sejal Shah Burning Turtles Hema Nair Redrawing the Contours Baby Photo, Inc. vs. Michael Egerton Crusz A Door Ajar Rienzi Crusz Just After "Just Between Indians" Ginu Kamani Just Between Indians Ginu Kamani Women in Exile: Gender Relations in the Asian Indian Community Shamita Das Dasgupta & Sayantani Dasgupta Defend Yourself Against Me Bapsi Sidhwa Romantic Stereotypes Anu Mitra Untitled Ghalib Dhalla More Precious than These Hands Shivani Manghnani Afterword Sucheta Mazumdar About the Contributors Credits Photographs by (in order of appearance): Jaishri Abichandani Vivek Bald Naheed Islam Amitava Kumar/Impact Visuals Nisma Zaman Nupu Chaudhuri