The Murder of Aziz Khan: A Cultural Materialist Perspective

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the Pakistani English novel, Ghose’s The Murder of Aziz Khan, through the framework of cultural-materialism, developed by both Williams (1977) and Harris (1979), focusing on the interconnected levels of cultural materialism, such as material conditions (Infrastructure), social organization (structure) and ideology (superstructure), which remain largely unexplored in the novel. For this purpose, the researcher adopts qualitative research approach and employs Catherine Belsey’s (2013) method of textual analysis, exploring infrastructure, structure and superstructure as interconnected, by combining Harris’s tripartite model with Williams’ understanding of the dynamic relationship among material conditions, social structure and cultural production. The analysis concludes that different material conditions and social structures shape cultural differences. Since material conditions continuously restructure cultural meanings, therefore, future studies may reconsider literary texts usually studied through a static view of culture, which would generate deeper insights.
Keywords: cultural materialism, base, structure, superstructure, textual analysis