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Friday, January 30, 2015

What about Kipling?

Should Rudyard Kipling (born in Colonial India, raised in England) be considered a TCK?  Is there a start-time limit on TCKness (is it a postcolonial phenomenon)?

I have shied away from the Colonials because they raise so many questions.  Recently a colleague/ co-conspirator in matters of TCK reading/ friend sent me a list of authors to add to my list, noting in her email to me "Rudyard Kipling – I’m sure you know this one, but I didn’t see him on the list."
I do know this one . . . but I don't know what to do with him.

Empire.
Is being part of an empire like being part of a really huge organization?
TCKs of Empire have exaggerated social and racial privilege, and exaggerated separation from their host nation (s) because of their privileges.
In what respects are colonial subjects like or unlike later 20th and now 21st century TCKs?

Really: there is a full-on study required.  Someone, out there, in search of a good PhD or MA project should jump on this.  Here, I gift the idea to you, gratis.

Open the floodgates on Kipling, and in comes George Orwell (also born in Colonial India, with colonial Burma on his mother's side, and Jamaica on his father's) as well as a host of others (Rumer Godden, Sybille Bedford, Henry Bromell and actress Felicity Kendall to name but a few).

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