The Murder of Aziz Khan: A Cultural Materialist Perspective

Abstract

The study aims to study the Pakistani English novel, Ghose’s the Murder of Aziz Khan, through the lens of Raymond Williams’ Cultural Materialism (2011), focusing on three structures (levels) of Cultural Materialism, i.e., Infrastructures, Structure and Superstructure, which remain largely unexplored in the novel. To analyze and interpret the novel through the lens of cultural materialism, qualitative research method, using textual analysis model proposed by Catherine Belsey (2013) has been applied. Williams conceptualizes the relationship between infrastructure, structure and superstructure as dynamic and interrelated. The findings of the study show that the novel exposes a complex interplay among infrastructure, structure and superstructure, in which economic transformations (base) shape social institutions (structure) which are both ideologically sustained and challenged through cultural practices (infrastructure). Thus, the study 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.