Narrating Intersex Experiences: Breaking The Silence Surrounding Sex, Voicing and Eliciting Trauma, and (Re)Shaping Boundaries of Belonging

Karavasilev, K.

Abstract

The paper presents conceptual frameworks through which intersex narratives can be read as eliciting trauma and argues that the silence surrounding intersex individuals creates conditions for (individual) traumatic experiences. To achieve that the study will use the concept of haunting which refers to the resurfacing of past traumatic events into the present. Such events were caused by power-yielding structures – e.g., medical authorities, the government – and have been kept secret or have been silenced. The paper illustrates how breaking the silence by creating a counter-medical (meta)narrative based on the experiences of many intersex people elicits a sense of belonging to a community, yet, paradoxically, provides the ground for experiencing historical trauma based on the medical history that joins these narratives.