Spoken Autobiographical Acts
Spoken Autobiographical Acts
Nayra Atiya's ‘Khul-Khaal'
This chapter examines “spoken autobiographical acts” and the demotic eloquence of women who share their experiences about excision with a female amanuensis-cum-ethnographer in a post-colonial context. It looks at Egyptian journalist Nayra Atiya's 1982 book Khul-Khaal, which transcribes and translates the stories told by five Egyptian women who act as “native informants.” Atiya's subjects are all women from Egypt, and Khul-Khaal documents their transitions of excision, menarche, defloration, pregnancy, birth, lactation, and menopause. By erasing her own autobiography, Atiya has inadvertently supported traditional anthropologists who were reluctant to consider autobiography in their fieldwork. Through the housekeeper Suda in Khul-Khaal, she challenges general assumptions about gender and sexuality.
Keywords: spoken autobiographical acts, Nayra Atiya, Khul-Khaal, excision, women, Egypt, informants, autobiography, gender, sexuality
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