The double vision of empire: A postcolonial interrogation of race, gender, and authority in rudyard kipling's fiction

Abstract

Rudyard Kipling, a writer born in India who later championed the British Empire, occupied a unique cultural position that allowed him to both represent and complicate the imperial project. This paper undertakes a postcolonial reading of his novels, particularly The Light That Failed and Kim, to interrogate how various tropes like race, class, and gender are treated within the colonial framework. By focusing on Kipling's depiction of the clash between colonialism and emerging nationalism, this analysis reveals the complex, often contradictory, vision of imperial authority inherent in his work.