Kipling and Orientalism (Routledge Revivals)

B. J. Moore-Gilbert

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781138799219
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317629375
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

First published in 1986, this book sets Kipling firmly in the historical context not only of contemporary India but of prior Anglo-Indian writers about India. Despite his enthusiastic reception in England as 'revealer of the East', in India he seems to have been regarded as just one more Anglo-Indian writer. The author demonstrates the traditionalism of Kipling's use of the themes of Anglo-Indian fiction – themes such as the 'White Man's grave', domestic instability, frustration and loneliness. In particular, Kipling is shown to be writing in a strongly conservative idiom, concentrating on the role of the British hierarchy as the determining factor in a response to India, on British insecurity and fears of a repeat of the 1857 mutiny, and regarding Indian institutions only in so far as they represented a threat to British rule. Conservative critiques of liberalism are also discussed.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliographical Note
• Chapter 1: Kipling’s Contexts
• Chapter 2: “Gorgeous East” Versus “Land of Regrets”
• Chapter 3: A Sense of Insecurity
• Chapter 4: Strategic Conflicts within “Orientalism”
• Chapter 5: The Problem of Solidarity
• Chapter 6: “Orientalism” and Narrative
• Bibliography
• Index