The Kipling That Everybody Read: Narrative Strategies in the Early Short Stories of Rudyard Kipling

During his own lifetime, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) went from being one of the world’s most widely read and respected short story writers and poets to being ignored and even despised. The young Kipling was someone that everybody read, while the elderly Kipling was, as Edmund Wilson called his essay from 1941, ‘The Kipling That Nobody Read’. The Danish scholar C. A. Bodelsen stated that unlike the late Kipling, the young Kipling wrote ‘almost completely ‘straight’ stories’. This dissertation investigates the question: What narrative strategies did Kipling employ in his early stories? Were Kipling’s early stories really so ‘straight’? How different is ‘the Kipling that everybody read’ from ‘the Kipling that nobody read’?

The dissertation presents close readings of some early short stories by Kipling and, in order of comparison, a few of Kipling’s late short stories are discussed. The approach is eclectic; the close readings are done with the care of a New Critic, but also employ some of the insights into voices and discourse provided by Mikhail Bakhtin.

The dissertation finds that Kipling’s early stories are not so ‘straight’ as they may appear. Kipling employs narrative strategies that both participate in and undermine a colonialist discourse. The early stories are deliberately ‘artless’, and many of the narrative strategies found in Kipling’s late stories can also be found in the early stories. Kipling’s early stories contain many different voices, often 'double-voiced' discourse, and numerous literary allusions are crucial parts of Kipling’s narrative strategies.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) gik fra at være regnet for et litterært geni af sine samtidige til glemt, ja foragtet. Den unge Kipling var en, som alle læste, mens den ældre Kipling var, som Edmund Wilson kaldte sit essay fra 1941, “The Kipling That Nobody Read”. C. A. Bodelsen hævdede, at den unge Kipling skrev næsten udelukkende ’enkle’ historier. Denne afhandling undersøger spørgsmålet: Hvilke narrative strategier brugte Kipling i sine tidlige noveller? Hvor stor forskel er der på ’den Kipling, alle læste’ og ’den Kipling, ingen læste’?

Afhandlingen består af nærlæsninger af nogle af Kiplings tidlige noveller og endelig bliver fire af Kiplings sene noveller kort analyseret. Den anvendte metode er eklektisk; nærlæsninger følger den nykritiske tradition, men drager også nytte af Mikhail Bakhtins begreber om stemmer og diskurs.

Afhandlingen konkluderer, at Kiplings tidlige noveller ikke er så enkle, som de umiddelbart kan synes. Kipling benytter narrative strategier, som både tager del i og underminerer en kolonialistisk diskurs. De tidlige noveller er bevidst ukunstlede, og mange af de narrative strategier, man finder i Kiplings sene noveller, er også til stede i de tidlige. Kiplings tidlige noveller indeholder mange forskellige stemmer, og ofte en flerstemmig diskurs, og utallige litterære allusioner er afgørende dele af Kiplings narrative strategier.