Post-Truth Sense of Body Horror in Ali Smith’s “The Hanging Girl”

Year 2026, Issue: 5, 111 - 121, 26.01.2026

Rana Sağıroğlu , Funda Civelekoglu

Abstract

Ali Smith’s short story “The Hanging Girl” engages with death, grief, and sorrow by merging a surreal setting with reality and fantasy. The story serves as a symbolic representation of global suffering, centring on the individual traumas of Pauline and the mysterious girl she finds hanging from a lamppost, thereby highlighting the larger context of the world’s present condition. Pauline and other characters are exposed to images of war and death, which function as the constant bombardment of images desensitizing them, disrupting communication and intensifying their sense of isolation. By employing body horror, Smith directs the reader’s attention to the impact of media manipulation on individuals’ mental health and presents the body as a site of ambiguity. This paradox reflects the post-truth condition, wherein false narratives and emotional appeals override objective facts. The story critiques contemporary society, which perpetually undermines individual freedom, by challenging the concept of truth. This article argues that “The Hanging Girl” exemplifies the aesthetic manifestations of the grotesque and the uncanny, frequently intertwining with body horror and post-truth narratives to illustrate the disorientation of contemporary life experiences.

Keywords

Ali Smith , “The Hanging Girl” , post-truth , body horror , grotesque , uncanny , media manipulation , emotional response

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