ABSTRACT
Hanan al-Shaykh’s My Life Is An Intricate Tale (2005, translated as The Locust and the Bird, 2009) hinges on a paradox, dubbing itself an “autobiography” of the author’s mother. This chapter’s central argument is that it is an unconventional autobiography of the author herself, articulated through her mother’s “autobiography.” The chapter unfolds how the reflexive doubling of mother-daughter (auto)biographical identities are constructed reciprocally and through self-reflection, blurring any possibility for marking out a clear boundary between biography and autobiography. This chapter also explores the implications and complications of “speaking for” an illiterate—the mother, pointing to autobiographical practices become a site of political intervention.
