The Cambridge Companion to Rudyard Kipling

An overview of Kipling's work, his career and postcolonial views on his often controversial position on imperialism.

Howard J. Booth (Edited by)

9780521199728, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 September 2011

228 pages, 4 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.7 cm, 0.49 kg

'This is a successful Companion, and may be recommended as the place to start for those wanting a single-volume introduction to Kipling studies. There are no weak chapters, and the thirteen topics are sensibly chosen.' John Lee, Victorian Studies

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) is among the most popular, acclaimed and controversial of writers in English. His books have sold in great numbers, and he remains the youngest writer to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Many associate Kipling with poems such as 'If–', his novel Kim, his pioneering use of the short story form and such works for children as the Just So Stories. For others, though, Kipling is the very symbol of the British Empire and a belligerent approach to other peoples and races. This Companion explores Kipling's main themes and texts, the different genres in which he worked and the various phases of his career. It also examines the 'afterlives' of his texts in postcolonial writing and through adaptations of his work. With a chronology and guide to further reading, this book serves as a useful introduction for students of literature and of Empire and its after effects.

Chronology
Introduction Howard J. Booth
1. Kipling and the fin-de-siècle Robert Hampson
2. India and empire John McBratney
3. Kipling's very special relationship: Kipling in America, America in Kipling Judith Plotz
4. Science and technology: present, past and future Laurence Davies
5. Kipling and gender Kaori Nagai
6. Kipling and war David Bradshaw
7. Kipling as a children's writer and the Jungle books Jan Montefiore
8. 'Nine and sixty ways': Kipling, ventriloquist poet Harry Ricketts
9. Kim Patrick Brantlinger
10. The later short fiction Howard J. Booth
11. Kipling and postcolonial literature Bart Moore-Gilbert
12. Kipling and the visual: illustrations and adaptations Monica Turci
13. Reading Kipling in India Harish Trivedi
Further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]