Considering Kim’s Dual Identity in the Post-colonial Discourse

• 발행기관: 한국외국어대학교 영미연구소
• 저자명: Kim Hoyeol
• 간행물 정보: 『영미연구』제34집, 33~53쪽, 전체 21쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2015.05.31

영문 초록

It is becoming significant for individuals to find their own individual identities, as the today’s ongoing globalization has become much more complicated. A similar situation occurred when the British Empire influenced the world politically, economically, and culturally in the nineteenth century. In order to grasp human intrinsic identities, my thesis aims to use postcolonial theories to examine characters’ identities in a nineteenth-century British novel, Kipling’s Kim (1901). In Kipling’s Kim, I examine Kim, an Irish boy who experiences racial identity confusion by living in British India. Kim’s identity is ambiguous as his background is complicated: his parents are Irish, Kim was born in India, he was educated in a British school, and he participated in the Great Game. It would prove inadequate to try to see Kim’s identity based on binary oppositions, as Kim’s identity is neither British nor native Indian. Aside from simply being a person named Kim, Kim’s identity consists of being someone who has cultural hybridity. Through the main character of Kim, Kipling suggests that a Brit who understands the local Indian culture and society, as Kim does, would govern India with ease. Overall, Kipling’s Kim elaborates on why or how India should be governed by Britain and also seems to justify the British rule of India. In Kim, Kipling creates the main character of Kim, who has cultural hybridity and whose process of personal growth throughout the novel depicts Kipling’s ideas on how to govern India easily. In order to justify British rule in India, Kipling also depicts how British-Indian society was developed by Britain, also through the character of Kim. Looking into characters’ identities throughout nineteenth-century British novels helps modern readers who live in this complicated world to grasp human intrinsic identities.

목차

Ⅰ. Introduction

Ⅱ. Kipling’s Kim: Who is Kim?

Ⅲ. Conclusion

Works Cited

Abstract

키워드

Rudyard Kipling Kim Identity Post-colonialism the Indian Rebellion of 1857 키플링 킴 정체성 탈식민주의 세포이 항쟁