IMPERIAL SUBJECTS IMPERIAL SPACE: RUDYARD KIPLING'S FICTION OF THE NATIVE- - Hardcover

MCBRATNEY, JOHN

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814209092 ISBN 13: 9780814209097

Publisher: Ohio State University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Why was Rudyard Kipling so drawn in his fiction to the figure of the foreign-born Briton--what Kipling called the "native-born"? The answer lies in McBratney's "Imperial Subjects, Imperial Space, the first full-length study of a figure central to Kipling's major imperial fiction: the "native-born." In these narratives Kipling sees the native-born fulfilling two important roles: model imperial servant and ideal imperial citizen. The special abilities that allow the native-born to play these roles derive from his identity as neither exclusively British nor simply "native." This study also provides the most thorough analysis of that figure's hybrid, "casteless" selfhood in relation to shifting attitudes toward racial identity during Britain's "New Imperialism." In its endeavor to place the liminal subject within a particular moment in British discourses about race and nation, this book illuminates both the complexities of subject construction in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and the struggles today over identity formation in the postcolonial world.

About this title

About the Author:

John McBratney is associate professor of English at John Carroll University.

Review:

"This is quite simply the best critical book on Kipling."

About this edition

• Publisher: Ohio State University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0814209092
• ISBN 13: 9780814209097
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224