Women, Violence, and Magical Realism in the Fiction of Mohammed Hanif

Abstract

This article explores two novels by Pakistani-English author Mohammed Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2009) and Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (2011). Although these novels are magical realist, I argue that they are not conventionally so because magic is not a continuous or prominent thread in them, and magic is experienced/effected by individuals rather than communities. These two novels focus on the oppression of women in Pakistani society, starting with the reign of General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s and continuing to the present day. The novels emphasize violence—physical, sexual, and psychological—emanating from the domestic sphere as well as in institutionalized spaces such as the armed forces and the police. In the midst of this relentless violence, blind Zainab and Alice become conduits for magic, though this provides little to no relief to them as individuals or as representative figures. Nevertheless, the use of the magical realist mode in such cases is crucial because realism and positivist historiography, like patriarchy and religious fundamentalism, subjugate all other ways of existing, believing, and remembering. These dominant discourses are undercut by satire, but more importantly, by the use of rumour, which, however, also casts doubt on the magical. This does not reduce the importance of magic so much as treat the realist and positivist bent of history, as well as organized/dominant religions, with greater scepticism.