Renewed interest in the representation of empire in Kipling’s work can be traced to Edward Said’s introduction to Kim (1987) which appeared in a slightly different form in Culture and Imperialism (1993). Said’s arguments focussed on Kipling’s use of stereotypes as well as the apparent absence of resistance to British rule, which is historically inaccurate. Many critics built on Said’s approach, including Patrick Williams (1989) and Zohreh Sullivan (1993 and 2002). More recently, there have been criticisms of Said’s approach, for instance in Harish Trivedi, ‘Arguing with the Himalayas’ (2010).
Bart Moore-Gilbert took criticism of Kipling’s fiction in a new direction by drawing on the theories of Homi Bhabha to examine hybridity in Kipling’s work (1996). Later he examined postcolonial novels which ‘wrote back’ to Kim, including Timeri Murari’s Imperial Agent (1987) and Jamyang Norbu’s The Mandela of Sherlock Holmes (1999).
Much post-colonial criticism has focussed on India and Kim , but Kipling’s engagement with empire is much wider, both in terms of genre and geography. Responses to empire are found in his short stories for adults and children, as well as in his verse and journalism. They encompass South Africa as well as India, while Kaori Nagai has studied the relationship between India and Ireland (2007) in Kipling’s works.
Since the mid-2000s, there has been an increased interest in Kipling’s artistry. Many scholars work from a position which accepts the damage done by colonialism and examine in detail the literary techniques Kipling invented and used. For an accessible introduction to Kipling, including his relationship with empire, Radio 4’s ‘In Our Time’ presented by Melvyn Bragg (2014) is a good place to start, while Montefiore (2007) provides a more detailed overview of critical debate about the multi-faceted subject of Kipling and empire.
Allen, Charles, Kipling Sahib: India and the Making of Rudyard Kipling (London: Abacus, 2007). (A biography of Kipling in this key period of his life)
Bragg, Melvyn, ‘Rudyard Kipling’:In Our Time, Radio 4 (London: BBC, 16th October 2014).
Chemmachery, Jaine, ‘Lies and Self-Censorship in Kipling’s “Indian” Stories’, Kipling Journal 353, March 2014 (On ‘Thrown Away’ and ‘Beyond the Pale’)
Hai, Ambreen, Making Words Matter: The Agency of Colonial and Postcolonial Literature (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009).
Havholm, Peter, Politics and Awe in Rudyard Kipling’s Fiction (Hampshire: Ashgate, 2008)
Kipling, Rudyard, The Letters of Rudyard Kipling Vol.1, ed. Thomas Pinney (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2004).
Kipling, Rudyard, Kim, ed. and intro Edward Said (London: Penguin, 1987).
Kipling, Rudyard, Kim,, ed. Zohreh Sullivan (New York: Norton, 2002).
Kipling, Rudyard, Kim,, ed. and intro Harish Trivedi (London: Penguin, 2011).
Kipling, Rudyard, Kim: A Cultural Edition eds. by Paula Krebs and Tricia Lootens (Longman Cultural Editions, London: Pearson 2010). (Includes cancelled chapter from Kim MS of lynching on a railway train.)
Kipling, Rudyard, Stories and Poems ed. Daniel Karlin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, 2015) Very useful intro and notes to stories.
Lewis, Lisa, ‘Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Indian History’ in Montefiore (ed.) In Time’s Eye (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013)
McBratney, John Imperial Subjects, Imperial Space: Rudyard Kipling’s Fiction of the Native-Born (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2002)
McLure, John, Kipling and Conrad: The Colonial Fiction (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1981)
Montefiore, Jan, Rudyard Kipling (Tavistock: Northcote House, 2007).
Montefiore, Jan (ed.), In Time’s Eye: Essays on Rudyard Kipling (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013)
Montefiore, Jan, ‘Kipling as a children’s writer and ‘The Jungle Books, in The Cambridge Companion to Rudyard Kipling, ed. H. Booth (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Moore-Gilbert, Bart,’The Bhabhal of Tongues: Reading Kipling, Reading Bhabha’ in Writing India (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996).
Moore-Gilbert, Bart, ‘I am going to rewrite Kipling’s Kim; Kipling and postcolonialism’, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature (2002, 37:39), 39-58.
Moore-Gilbert, Bart, ‘Kipling and Postcolonial Literature’, The Cambridge Companion to Rudyard Kipling, ed. Howard Booth (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
Moore-Gilbert, Bart, ‘ Cultural Transfer in Kipling’s Writing: A Conference Paper’, Kipling Journal 277, March 1996. (On ‘Beyond the Pale’)
Murari, Timeri, N, The Imperial Agent (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1987).
Nagai, Kaori, Empire of Analogies: Kipling, India and Ireland (Cork University Press, 2007).
Norbu, Jamyang, The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes (Delhi: Harper Collins, 1999).
Parry, Ann, The Poetry of Rudyard Kipling (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992)
Plotz, Judith, ‘How the “White Man’s Burden” Lost Its Scare Quotes’ in Rooney and Nagai (eds.) Kipling and Beyond (London: Macmillan, 2010).
Randall, Don, Kipling’s Imperial Boy. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000).
Rooney, Caroline and Nagai, Kaori (eds.), Kipling and Beyond: Patriotism, Globalization and Postcolonialism (London: Macmillan, 2010).
Rushdie, Salman, ‘Kipling’ in Imaginary Homelands (New York: Viking, 1991).
Said, Edward, Culture and Imperialism (London: Chatto and Windus, 1993).
Sergeant, David. Kipling’s Art of Fiction 1884-1901 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Sullivan, Zohreh, Narratives of Empire: The Fictions of Rudyard Kipling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
Tickell, Alex, ‘Kipling’s Famine-Romance: Masculinity, Gender and Colonial Biopolitics in “William the Conqueror”’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing (45.3 September 2009. pp. 251-263.)
Trivedi, Harish, ‘Arguing with the Himalayas: Edward Said on Kipling’, Caroline Rooney and Kaori Nagai (eds.), Kipling and Beyond: Patriotism, Globalization and Postcolonialism (London: Macmillan, 2010).
Trivedi, Harish, ‘Reading Kipling in India’ in The Cambridge Companion to Kipling, ed. H. Booth (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Trivedi, Harish, ‘Kipling’s “vernacular”: what he knew of it and what he made of it’, Montefiore (ed.) In Time’s Eye: Essays on Rudyard Kipling (Manchester University Press, 2013)
Williams, Patrick. ‘Kim and Orientalism’ in Kipling Reconsidered, ed. Philip Mallett, (Macmillan: Basingstoke, 1989).
Click here for access to the Kipling Journal articles listed.
NB: The editions of Kim by Sullivan (2002) and by Krebs & Lootens (2010) can be bought online via abebooks. Many students will have access to the Cambridge Companion to Kipling on-line through their university library.
All the books mentioned above also appear in the New Readers Guide Booklists.