Title: Rudyard Kipling's fiction : mapping psychic spaces /
Authors: Welby, Lizzy,
Year: 2015
Subjects: Kipling, Rudyard, Criticism and interpretation.; Feminist criticism.; Psychoanalytic interpretation.
Abstract: This study provides an entirely new reading of Kipling's fiction using the feminist psychoanalytic methodology of Julia Kristeva and Hélène Cixous, focusing particularly on ideas of the abjected maternal feminine. It examines Kipling's ambivalent relationship to the India of his childhood and the 'loss' of his mother figures. In doing so, it peels back the layers of masculine bravado that continues to characterize Kipling's fiction to reveal a valorized 'feminine' space.--Provided by publisher
Contents: Introduction: Two separate sides to his head -- Kipling's ambivalent India -- Paradise lost: Kipling's Southsea years -- Mastering the law-of-the-Father in the Jungle Book and Stalky & Co. -- Empire of contradictions: desire for the impossible Mother India in Kim -- The 'Sorrowful state of manhood': Kipling's adults in India -- The ascent from the abyss: Dedication to duty in The Day's Work -- Conclusion: This other Eden -- Puck of Pook's Hill, Rewards and Fairies.