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English or Anglo-Indian?: Kipling and the Shift in the Representation of the Colonizer in the Discourse of the British Raj

Hart, Catherine Elizabeth

Abstract Details

2012, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
Using Rudyard Kipling as the focal point, my dissertation examines nineteenth-century discourse on English identity and imperialism through literature of the British Raj written in the 1840s through the 1930s. In my analysis of this literature, I identify a shift in the representation of the colonizer between English and Anglo-Indian in four distinct historical moments: pre-Rebellion (1857), post-Rebellion, the fin de siècle, and post-World War I. While the term Anglo-Indian can be used as a simple means of categorization—the Anglo-Indian is the English colonizer who lives in and conducts imperial work in India as opposed to one of the other British colonies—it also designates a distinct cultural identity and identifies the extent to which the colonizer has been affected by India and imperialism. As such, the terms Anglo-Indian and English, rather than being interchangeable, remain consistently antithetical in the literature with one obvious exception: the Kipling canon. In fact, it is only within the Kipling canon that the terms are largely synonymous; here, the Anglo-Indian colonizer is represented not only as a positive figure but also as a new and improved breed of Englishman. Kipling’s voice, though presumed to be the definitive voice in the contemporary imperial imagination, is an anomaly. By drawing attention to this fact and to the specific historical context within which the colonizer is represented, my analysis changes ideas of colonial masculine identity and contends that Kipling’s pervasive effect on imperial discourse overshadows the complexity of the discourse of the British Raj and contemporary discourses on imperialism, English identity, British identity, and nationalism.
Clare Simmons, PhD (Advisor)
Jill Galvan, PhD (Committee Member)
Amanpal Garcha, PhD (Committee Member)
Pranav Jani, PhD (Committee Member)
266 p.

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Citations

  • Hart, C. E. (2012). English or Anglo-Indian?: Kipling and the Shift in the Representation of the Colonizer in the Discourse of the British Raj [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337258865

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hart, Catherine. English or Anglo-Indian?: Kipling and the Shift in the Representation of the Colonizer in the Discourse of the British Raj. 2012. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337258865.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hart, Catherine. "English or Anglo-Indian?: Kipling and the Shift in the Representation of the Colonizer in the Discourse of the British Raj." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1337258865

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)