A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ALICE BHATTI FROM ECO-CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This study employs ecocriticism as a framework to explore the ecological facets of Mohammed Hanif's novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti. The novel is set in Karachi which portrays, a Christian nurse Alice Bhatti struggling against patriarchal and religious oppressions in a place of urban space, pollution, and systematic neglect that reflects her social marginalization. Although gender, class, and politics have gained the majority of critical attention, the environmental elements of the novel have not been properly investigated and unexplored. In order explore this gap, the study examines how ecological imagery in the novel functions as a metaphor for both institutional and cultural decline and as a representation of material reality. This study is based on textual analysis as primary method, which involves closely investigating the narrative to find depictions of ecological deterioration and how it intersects with social injustice. The study further probe to address how environmental degradation is portrayed in Our Lady of Alice Bhatti and ecological injustice interacts with marginalization based on gender and religion. Hanif's portrayal of dirty hospital, irresponsibility of policy-makers, contaminated water, and collapsing urban setting of the novel underscores systematic decay. This study will help the readers to grasp better Alice Bhatti's hardships by showing how social oppression and environmental decay are intertwined by scrutinize ecological issues. Overall, this study demonstrates Hanif's writings revealing a deep connection of social degradation in South Asian literature and post-colonial ecocriticism