Empire of Analogies: Kipling, India and Ireland

(Hardback - 2006)

Kaori Nagai
University of Kent, UK

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"Who is Kim? And "Why is he Irish?"-This book sheds light on this post-colonial riddle by placing it within a web of colonial analogies which existed to create the British Empire as a 'reality'. It characterises 'Empire' as a discursive battleground in which conflicting and changing models of British hegemony coexisted and were constantly contested.

Starting from the analysis of the Irish characters in Kipling's Indian stories, this book shows that the representation of the British Empire was greatly indebted to analogies and comparisons made between colonies, and as such became the very site where the image of Empire was contested. It contrasts two different ways of making colonial analogies: 'imperialist' and 'nationalist'. Kipling, as a young journalist, was keenly aware of the fact that Indian and Irish nationalists drew analogies between each other's colonial situation to make the case for self-government and British misrule, and his repeated emphasis on Irish participation inthe Raj can be seen as a powerful 'imperialist' counter-representation to these subversive analogies. With this framework in mind, this book traces how Kipling's representation of Empire changed over time as he moved away from India and also has thehegemony of British imperialism faltered toward the end of the nineteenth century.

Hardback: 2006
Printed Pages: 192
Size: 234 x 156mm
ISBN: 9781859184080

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