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Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling. Greatness— Laudation & (true) Controversy. Rudyard Kipling. 1865-1936 Born in Bombay, India First language was Hindi “Ruddy” was an adult nickname: dark-complexioned, it was whispered that he was part Indian.

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Rudyard Kipling

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  1. Rudyard Kipling Greatness— Laudation & (true) Controversy

  2. Rudyard Kipling • 1865-1936 • Born in Bombay, India • First language was Hindi • “Ruddy” was an adult nickname: dark-complexioned, it was whispered that he was part Indian. • Never accepted in ‘society’ (Queen Victoria may have disliked him), his outsider status (& certain life events) made him a rara arbis: a high literary genius with vox populi

  3. Kipling’s literary & cultural footprint

  4. Kipling’s literary & cultural footprint

  5. “Yes, making mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleepIs cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bitIs five times better business than paradin' in full kit.” “….the flannelled fools at the wicket and the muddied oafs at the goal.” “East is East, and West is West, & never the twain shall meet.” “What do they know of England who only England know?” “The female of the species is more deadly than the male.” “The white man’s burden.” Rudyard Kipling: in the language

  6. Imperially-minded: sees England bringing improvement to its colonies. A jingoistic view of England vis a vis other countries Patriotism blending into nationalism Did not shirk portrayals of violence: equally gifted at literary realism and fantasy. Andro-centric: literature of boys, men, and masculinity. George Orwell wrote a powerful (though cautionary) defense of Kipling’s vernacular genius, literary merit, and social perception. Perennially popular in India. Sole authentic portrait and voice of the speech and life of the 19th C. soldier. A non- (even an anti-) Capitalist. Could not recognise (a perceptual blindness) the financial nature of Empire Disrespectful of authority: at times, anarchic. Critical Estimation & Controversy

  7. Kipling: both one & the other • Kipling was unfulfilled, personally, in either Indian or English culture • His fulfillment came in a movement between and across the two. • He was unsettled in any social class—English or Indian. • These biographical facts are an explanadum for his art: • Like quantum phenomena, his poetry and fiction resist attempts to fix definite moral or aesthetic location—Kipling is the bad and the good together, & both are the source of the other’s power.

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