Tracing the Subaltern in Our Lady of Alice Bhatti— A PoCo-Feminist Critique

Abstract

Our Lady of Alice Bhatti is a novel authored by Mohammed Hanif that discusses the underdog status of minorities, especially Christians in Pakistan. It examines how untouchables (Choohras, the janitors) in Christian community are subject to oppression from those within their group but also those outside their group, i.e., Muslims. What makes it worse is the oppression of the women from this class who are considered untouchables when it comes to equal opportunities in life and socialization but fit for interaction when taken as objects to satisfy the libido of those from out-group. This research is an attempt to study how they are exploited by those outside their community and deprived of their identity, in an attempt to silence their voices. Gayatri Spivak’s essay Can the Subaltern Speak is used as the theoretical framework to analyze this novel. This research is a qualitative research based on textual arguments.