Imperialism and Identity in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim (1901) and Robert Randau’s Les Colons (1907)

Abstract

The following research studies Imperialism and Identity in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim (1901) and Robert Randau’s Les Colons (1907). To achieve our purpose, we have relied on Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), Stephen Greenblatt’s “New Historicism” and Benedict Anderson’s “Imagined Communities”. We have first studied the way both authors conceived an imagined identity for the colonizer. The Anglo-Indians and the French-Algerians stand as the “true” natives of India and Algeria, respectively. Then, we have dealt with the representation of the native Indians and Algerians in both novels, relying our analysis on “otherness” as an Orientalist aspect. In addition, we have demonstrated how both authors created imagined communities and identities to legitimize their presence in India and Algeria. Thus, after studying Kipling’s and Randau’s works we came to the conclusion that both of them are supporters of Imperialism and their works obeyed the spirit of their ages and the context of their productions.