Commonwealth Studies archives material in Kipling Exhibition

Two items from our archive collections have been included within a small exhibition mounted on the 1st floor of Senate House, in association with the "Rudyard Kipling: An International Writer" Conference taking place from 21 - 22 October 2011.

Kipling, hailed as 'an interpreter of Empire' (Times, 18 Jan 1936), was regarded as a national institution when he died in 1936, and his funeral in Westminster Abbey was attended by the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. His current reputation is many-sided: sometimes condemned as a racist who embodied the imperial mind-set or dismissed as a writer 'whom nobody read', he is increasingly both valued and criticised for his complex response to the 'otherness' and diversity of races and classes in his writing.


This conference, sponsored by the Kipling Society, focuses on the figure of Kipling as an international writer. It seeks not only to re-assess Kipling's involvement in imperial ideology, but also to examine his interests in wider international affairs and his connections with foreign locations both within and outside the British Empire. The conference thereby aims to re-examine his work and achievement by exploring his diverse roles as an internationalist, and by considering his relevance to our post-modern globalising world

Senate House Library Special Collections staff have mounted this exhibition to highlight material relevant to the conference held in our collections. These include two items from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library collection - a letter from Kipling to Richard Jebb, thanking Jebb for a copy of an article from the 'Empire Review' and stating that he fears that he could not undertake to hold himself responsible for any deduction that may be made from anything that he may have written on the future of the Empire, and typescript notes by Sir Stephen Tallents, of a conversation with Kipling, held soon after Tallents took on his role within the Empire Marketing Board, to discuss ideas for the promotion of Empire good and EMpire trade.





Event Type: Conference / Symposium



Speakers





Keynote Speakers: Amit Chaudhuri and Charles Allen





Description





This conference, sponsored by the Kipling Society, focuses on the figure of Kipling as an international writer. It seeks not only to re-assess Kipling's involvement in imperial ideology, but also to examine his interests in wider international affairs and his connections with foreign locations both within and outside the British Empire. The conference thereby aims to re-examine his work and achievement by exploring his diverse roles as an internationalist, and by considering his relevance to our post-modern globalising world.