Trauma in Palestinian Women’s Autobiographies: Concrete Histories of Personal Loss and National Disintegration

This article argues the significance of literature in bearing witness to trauma. It engages the theories of trauma and autobiographies to read Palestinian women’s autobiographies. In a comparative vein, this work demonstrates the relevance of contemporary literature in attesting to human suffering and alleviating the pain by listening/reading and so healing. Edward Said’s writings on orientalism and Palestine have served to frame the overall discussion of the article. The trauma of exile, dispersion, and “national disintegration” are narrated as a shared experience by many Palestinian diaspora. I shall be considering "In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story" (2002) in conjunction with trauma as it implicates history and memory in the process of writing and representing experiences of war, loss, and exile. I contend that the trauma of not belonging after 1948 is the ultimate articulation of belonging to Palestine in Palestinian women’s life narratives