Two Lives Enmeshed: Disentangling Genre and Identity in Hanan al-Shaykh's Hikayati Sharhun Yatul / My Life: An Extended Commentary

摘要

This study situates Hanan al-Shaykh's Hikayati Sharhun Yatul (My Life: An Extended Commentary, 2005) within the realm of the autobiographical. At the crux of this inquiry are the contradictory strategies of self-representation throughout. To this end, it explores the consequences of “speaking for” another and of representing oneself relationally. It also examines how the dynamic between the singular and the multiple within the narrative voice articulates the connected themes of family, gender, and authority, and how its narrative choices engender it as an act of resistance. In this context, it focuses on the theme of illiteracy. This study fleshes out the ways in which this text constitutes self/selves rather than assuming either the uniqueness of the literary self or overall textual coherence.