| Unit name | Rudyard Kipling |
|---|---|
| Unit code | ENGL20086 |
| Credit points | 30 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Lee |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
Normally the successful completion of appropriate Level 1 English units |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of English |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Rudyard Kipling is easy to caricature but more challenging to read. Often dismissed as jingoistic, his work has fallen foul of an anti-imperial trend in recent academic discourse which promotes the "post-colonial" as a coherent and valuable entity, frequently at the expense of aesthetic judgement. Kipling's work disconcerts and undermines the comfortable politics on which so much post-colonial criticism is founded. Kipling was described by Henry James as "The most complete man of genius I have ever known". This unit aims to examine his work as a novelist, short story writer, children's writer, poet and journalist, and to characterise his place in the literary tradition. It will also account for his problematic status in modern criticism, and evaluate the claim that he is an apologist for Empire. Subjects to be studied may include: Kipling and India; Kipling and the Great War; the writer as public figure; Kipling's treatment of love and hate, of religion, of childhood; and, of course, Kipling's politics.
