Absences of Faith in Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Postcolonial Approach

الملخص

Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) by Ahmed Saadawi explores the psychological and moral landscape of U.S.-occupied Iraq through a sectarian violence-born monster.  This paper analyses the novel's depiction of widespread lack of faith in religion, state institutions, and humanity using postcolonial theory.  It claims that the Whatsitsname is not a supernatural being but the real and symbolic manifestation of a society's whole belief system collapse due to postcolonial fragmentation and suffering.  This study shows how Saadawi uses the Gothic and grotesque to criticize foreign interference and civil strife by analyzing major characters and the monster's changing purpose.  The thesis contends that the novel portrays this vacuum of religion as a core element of a reality where violence and revenge are the only sources of meaning.  Frankenstein in Baghdad is a critical postcolonial piece about metaphysical and social certainties collapsing in the face of political chaos