MONSTROSITY AS SOCIAL CRITIQUE: READING CORRUPTION AND POWER IN HANIF’S OUR LADY OF ALICE BHATTI

Abstract

The paper reviews Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (2011) by Mohammed Hanif in the context of monstrosity as social critique in the postcolonial literature. It uses the Monster Theory by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (1996), and the idea of the monstrous feminine by Barbara Creed (1993) to discuss the grotesque signifier and monster metaphors as a means of revealing the corruption and decay of institutions and patriarchal oppression in Pakistani society today. The paper claims that monstrosity is not simply a metaphor but a critical paradigm which uncovers structural violence within the facets of normal systems, including healthcare, policing, and religious hierarchies. It shows how grotesque realism upsets the hegemonic discourses of authority and normativity through a qualitative textual analysis and close reading and how Hanif satirizes corruption as a systemic state and not an exception in the postcolonial setting. The article also constructs Alice Bhatti as a representation of the monstrous feminine, whose marginalized identity of being a Christian woman undermines the deeply held patriarchal and religious regulations. The paper prefigures the intersection of gender, class, and religion by demonstrating the way in which monstrosity is a place of resistance and agency. Finally, it adds to postcolonial and feminist discourse, as it places monstrosity as an instrument of critique as well as a means of analysis, and the potential of South Asian fiction to challenge institutional injustice and rethink the ways to resist.