The Voice in the Diary: Moni Mohsin’s Butterfly Diaries

Abstract

Moni Mohsin’s Butterfly Diaries (2008, 2011, 2014) present the character of Butterfly who is immersed in her own luxurious world with hardly a thought about the actual world in which sweeping social and political changes are taking place. Her lopsided, privileged view of the world is balanced by the voice of her husband Janoo who represents the voice of sanity. Yet Butterfly’s vantage point also allows for sporadic self-retrospection and analysis, and these are moments of surprise not only for the reader but also for her immediate family members. This paper argues that Butterfly’s voice which finds itself portrayed through the diary in the series is an insistent one which despite glossing over certain things still allows her to position herself in the changing society. It is this voice which can be posited as the voice of new Pakistan.