Hybrid Mysticism: The Journey to Enlightenment in the Works of Sir Richard Burton and Rudyard Kipling
Abstract
This dissertation examines the significance of the themes of hybridity and enlightenment in select works by Sir Richard Burton and Rudyard Kipling. The thesis proposes that a more sustained examination be given to the spiritual and religious elements of Kipling’s and Burton’s works. This thesis establishes the importance of identifying and interpreting the uniquely wrought mystical treatises that are present in the following works by Kipling and Burton: The Jungle Book (1893-95), Kim (1901), Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah (1855-56), Stone Talk (1865), and The Kasidah (1880). The chapters discuss how the authors’ esoteric faith systems—with attention to Burton’s allegiance to Sufism and Kipling’s ties to Freemasonry—inform and give rise to the trope of the hybrid trickster/god in their respective works. For Kipling and Burton, the specific figure of the hybrid hero—as the disruptor of boundaries—is a recurring emblem that serves to interrogate, articulate, and define the elusive concept of “enlightenment.” By tracing the deployment of hybridity in the works of Burton and Kipling, it is argued that there are striking parallels between the two writers’ use of and reliance on the hybrid trickster/god figure to examine the mystical themes of unity, universality, and “oneness.” In striving to define “enlightenment,” both veer away often from Western models of reason and rationalism to weave rich and complex narratives that draw upon Eastern conceptual models depicting syncretism and the worlds of spirit, myth, magic, and lore.
Description
Keywords
Literature--English
Citation
Rahim, S. A. (2016). Hybrid Mysticism: The Journey to Enlightenment in the Works of Sir Richard Burton and Rudyard Kipling (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26400