Integration Of Double Cultural Identities:A Postcolonial Study Of Kipling’s Kim

As the first British writer to win the Noble Prize for Literature in 1907 and the receiver of honorary degrees from universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Rudyard Kipling was one of the most famous British writers from the 1890 s to the 1930 s throughout the English world. But Kipling’s literary legacy was a matter of controversy because some critics think that he portrayed characters as a racist. Other scholars criticized his political views and regarded him as a spokesman for imperialism Obviously, these comments were too arbitrary. In fact he was far more a cultural idealist who attempted to integrate the East and the West more than an imperialist in writing his novels. What Kipling expressed in his works is not really prejudice against the natives, on the contrary he advocated his ideal of East and West integration, which was indeed admirable amidst the cultural environment pervaded with “Eurocentrism” in Britain.Kipling was an English descendant, but was born and grew up in India, so he and his works reveal both English and Indian cultures. With double cultural identities and living in two cultures, Kipling depicted his characters based on what he saw around him in real life and presented the social reality in colonial India, in this sense he acted as the spokesman of that age concerning the two worlds. In fact, during that period many Europeans despised non-white races. Though Kipling was also somewhat influenced by colonialism, he had a strong sympathy for the people in the colonies and respect for Indian culture, and attempted to integrate Eastern and Western cultures in his novels. In this respect, the novel Kim is his most successful work, which has endured the test of time and is still highly appreciated. This work best expresses Kipling’s ideal in the cultural integration of the East and the West.With an examination of Kipling’s life and thinking and of the society and culture in colonial India, this thesis takes a postcolonial approach and carefully studies the novel Kim, especially it focuses on analyzing its protagonist Kim. It discovers that the novel is not “the pleasure of imperialism” and Kim is not “an imperial boy”, as some critics take them to be. The author of the thesis examines Kim’s life experiences, explores into his character, and thinks that he is a very complex character with double cultural identities, that is, he has both English and Indian identities. The image of Kim both reflects the double cultural identities of Kipling himself and embodies his ideal in integrating Eastern and Western cultures.