Microhistory narratives, alternative epistemologies and epistemic credibility : a comparative study of Haifa Zangana's City of Widows and Leilah Nadir's Orange Trees of Baghdad

Life writing has been read as a factual account of people’s lives written from the very perspective of the subjects experiencing the world. Some critics consider women of colors’ memoirs as narratives of victimhood published by western publishers due to the political economy behind publications. Some consider them as political accounts of refugee and immigrant lives with utilitarian purposes. They are also often taken to be critical micro-narratives of history attempting to challenge and fill in the gaps of the grand narrative of history. In this paper, I critique the mentioned trajectory of reading lived-experience and approach the genre of life writing from a decolonial and Post-positivist Realist perspective, looking at these narratives as theory-laden and epistemically salient. I argue that as much as testimony narratives might be affected by hegemonic discourses of power, such as imperialism and the Western dream of multiculturalism, there is still autonomy to lived experience as an epistemic body. I look at Iraqi women’s life writing narratives written with the purpose of archiving the contemporary history of Iraq post-invasion and occupation. Their historiographical story-telling ripens into a discourse of resistance challenging white saviour, imperialist and colonial narratives produced to justify the American invasion as a benevolent act.