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- Title
Revisiting the Surfiction: A Study of Kipling's The Mark of the Beast.
- Authors
Singha, Beetoshok
- Abstract
Although generally acknowledged as a pro-imperialist litterateur, some of the works of Rudyard Kipling -- poetry and prose alike -- reflect on close reading the author's deep-seated anxiety and unease regarding the fate of the Empire in erstwhile colonies. The commonly accepted rationale behind the White rule in non-White colonies is the racial superiority of the former. But where White man misuses his power or shrinks back from the burden assigned to him the ideology of White supremacy collapses and the rule is sustained by the exercise of brute force. Louis Althusser informs us that no rule can be perpetuated by mere repression. The repression, devoid of ideology, can successfully be resisted or even thwarted when confronted by competent and self-assertive indigenous people. The possibility of retreat of the colonial power is embedded in the ignorance of the native ways of life and the abuse of power. Through an analysis of Kipling's short story "The Mark of the Beast" this paper exemplifies how the retreat of a representative of the Whites foreshadows the possible retreat of the colonizers.
- Subjects
SURREALISM (Literature); 19TH century fiction; MARK of the Beast, The (Short story); KIPLING, Rudyard, 1865-1936; IMPERIALISM in literature; ALTHUSSER, Louis, 1918-1990; FICTION; LITERARY criticism; POLITICAL attitudes
- Publication
Labyrinth: An International Refereed Journal of Postmodern Studies, 2014, Vol 5, Issue 4, p172
- ISSN
0976-0814
- Publication type
Literary Criticism