A Study On The Stylistic Features Of Kim

The Nobel Prize winner Rudyard Kipling has been one of the most controversial writers in the history of English literature.Because of his close relationship with both India and Britain,scholars focus on themes and thoughts in his works,such as identity confusion and politics.However,his writing skills and stylistic features have seldom been investigated.Based on Style in Fiction,this thesis aims to analyze stylistic features in Kipling’s Kim from the perspective of literary stylistics.Literary stylistic studies attach importance to selecting language and narrative strategies and an analysis of their stylistic effects to better express themes and offer aesthetic values.Based on close reading,this thesis will provide an interpretation of stylistic features chosen from lexical,grammatical and contextual levels of Kim.Lexical features of Kim are discussed in the first chapter.Two types of second person pronouns exist in Kim.Characters use "you",the respectful form,when they communicate in English,which reflects Kipling’s inherent sense of British superiority."Thou",which is commonly used to address others in lower position or in familiar relationship,always appears in Indian vernacular dialogues to reveal Kipling’s intimacy with the inferior India;deviances of English vocabulary and spelling occur as well.For the sake of visualizing multilingual Indian society,some Indian vernacular words are employed in that English written fiction.Additionally,misspellings vividly represent the influence of the Indian accent on English.Then,the present thesis analyzes grammatical features of Kim.Kipling generously uses coordination in constructing sentences,which adds to the portrayal of Kim as a clever and warmhearted character.Coordination also functions well in carefully and comprehensively describing Indian culture;when telling a story about the past,this novel is mainly written in the simple past tense,which,however,occasionally changes to the present tense.Kipling abruptly uses the present tense in narrating three scenes in the same story timeline to highlight a hidden meaning:the necessity of Indo-British harmony.Because of its timeless and real effect,the present tense is also employed to represent Kipling’s indelible impression of India.At last,the third chapter conducts a detailed interpretation of contextual features of Kim.The narrative point of view is an indispensable component of literary works.From the third person omniscient point of view,a harmonious Indian society emerges.Additionally,the third person limited point of view focalizing at Kim reveals his identity confusion transparently;when referring to modes of speech presentation,direct speech is the major mode.It foregrounds the character’s world vividly.Besides,the narrative report of speech acts greatly preserves the narrative pace by distinguishing between significant and unimportant speech and generically mentioning repeated speech.Based on literary stylistic theory,this thesis probes the selected stylistic features of Kim in detail.It affirms that those features play positive roles in expressing Kipling’s thoughts and offering aesthetic values.Kim’s success as a classic is not only attributed to its themes and characters,but also to the proper application of its stylistic features.