English Literature III
Dr. Ramirez
Rudyard Kipling 1865 - 1936
Born in India to the son of a sculptor/teacher
of art at the University of Bombay. Earned Nobel Prize for Literature in
1907.
As a boy, Kipling was sent to live
with evangelical family in Southsea. He then attended the United Services
College, a school for training colonial officers and colonial administrators.
He moved back to India in 1882 to work on a newspaper. He married
an American in 1892 and lived in Vermont, but finally moved to England
on a more or less permanent basis.
Kipling was an "extraordinarily
popular writer in the 1890s with short stories and poems enlivened by strange
and interesting settings, a brisk narrative economy, and the fresh energy
of the voices that told his tales,sometimes in working-class dialects and
usually in the smart, confident tone of someone who affected to know how
the world really worked" (DLB online , 1996).
The DLB writes "He often seems to
honor white men and Western technology as agents of a desirable dominion
over less-progressive peoples and parts of the world. He has been read
as the eulogist of an oligarchy of effective administrators, soldiers,
engineers, doctors, and an occasional journalist who belong, formally or
informally, to a club almost always closed to women. Such men are also
almost always British, bred in the schools and ethical code of a professional
middle class in which they learned how to obey the law that work be honorable
and honest while making up their own rules for getting the job done." (DLB,
online 1996).
"The Man Who Would Be King"
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Claiming and management of Land--entry
into Kafiristan, an unclaimed territory
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Authority-question of origins and the
role of masons.
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Army: introduction of technology, the
gun. Then, training of the natives into troops. Use of the
drill. Pitting natives against one another--clan warfare
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Desire to compete with or thwart Russian
imperialism
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Communication system
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Productivity--use of the land
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Idea and arrogance of empire
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Representation of natives as an uneducated,
inferior, and naive group
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Theme: power corrupts
References:
Freemasons--stone masons--wanted
to attract free thinkers; opposed by the Church. Taught morality, charity,
and obeying laws of the land.
Alexander the Great--335 died at
the age of 33. Emperor of Egypt and Persia
Semiramis-- Assyrian Queen From
550 BC, lost her army in the desert
Daniel and Peachey claim to be
her descendants.
Khyber Pass--The Pass--main route
into Afghanistan from Pakistan--connects Kabul with Peshawar.
Turquoise--precious mineral. Traded
for weapons. Comes from Siberia and Turkey and imported into Europe.
Reading Response Study Questions:
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How does Caliban re-enact Prospero
or Setebos's world?
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Site one example of cruelty and one
example of mercy in "Caliban upon Setebos"--what is the significance of
these moments?
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What is the setting and occasion of
"My Last Duchess"?
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How does "The Man Who Would Be King"
offer a blueprint for Empire?
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How does Kipling both celebrate and
make a parody of his imperial adventurers?
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Why are guns important to the story?