Reconciliation Out Of Dilemma

Rudyard Kipling is the first English writer who wins Nobel Prize for Literature. Born and brought up in India, Kipling has been called as an "Imperialist writer" and his works even became the "Bible" of colonialism. After the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism, Kipling's fame of a colonialist writer is increasingly promoted. However, through analysis of Kipling's works, people can find that Said's comment on Kipling's cultural identity is excessively arbitrary. Homi Bhabha's theory of the "Third Space" provides people a new way to explore the cultural identity of Rudyard Kipling. This thesis attempts to illustrate that Kipling's identity is the reconciliation of the west and the east by analyzing Kipling's novel Kim.This thesis consists of five parts. The first chapter of introduction presents people Rudyard Kipling's life and his writing career. This part also presents people the development of the postcolonial criticism from Said to Homi Bhabha and points out that the changing of that theory is from insisting opposition to searching for reconciliation.Chapter two explains the reason why Kim becomes the key to explore Kipling's identity. Similar life experiences and spiritual resonance between them prove that in the novel Kim Kipling created an ideal character he intended to be.Chapter three analyses the dilemma of the construction of Kipling's cultural identity. As a British writer born in India, he has a complicated complex to return to his motherland---Britain. Meanwhile, he is born and brought up in India, so he is very conscious of the British colonizer's activities in India. Therefore, his heart is full of puzzlement and struggle between the two countries and two cultures.Chapter four demonstrates that in the novel, Kim has a harmonious relationship with the westerners and the easterners at the same time. Through the analysis of Kim's cultural identity we can find that Kipling's cultural identity is the reconciliation of the east and the west.The last chapter of conclusion summarizes the former analysis and points out that the interaction of the two cultures results in the identity problem of Rudyard Kipling and the protagonist in his novel. Kipling's intended cultural identity can be seen from Kim's reconciliation of the east and the west. The problem of his identity is determined by the postcolonial situation in his time, which results in similar situations of other authors.