Cultural Hegemony in Daniyal Mueenuddin’s “In Other Rooms, Other Wonders”: Marxist Study

Abstract

This research focused on the study of Cultural hegemony in Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. This study investigate deep into the dominant class portrayed in Mueenuddin’s stories; the psychic complexities of individuals who struggle against habitual abjection, subordination, and disempowerment. It also probe the psyche of capitalist that how they want to rule the working class by inserting their perspective in them. This study looks at the two main factors of cultural hegemony i.e. coercion and consensus, by analyzing different characters from elite class and working class. Antonio Gramsci declares that the only means of keeping cultural hegemony by super leaders is not the handling of power and coercion; instead, consent, language, use of intellectual men are the ways regarding the implementation of cultural hegemony. This study also try to find out the intellectuals working in a society where a group of people in minority rules over the working class present in majority. Furthermore, this study highlights the feudal system of Pakistan which is although slowly receding in Pakistan but still has a strong hold in the rural areas. This study also bring to light the war of struggling class against this upper class to get a better position in society. As regards method of current research, textual analysis is opted and applied to the text of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.