Hybrid Mysticism: the Journey to Enlightenment in the Works of Sir Richard Burton and Rudyard Kipling
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2016 Hybrid Mysticism: The Journey to Enlightenment in the Works of Sir Richard Burton and Rudyard Kipling Rahim, Sheba Aniqua Rahim, S. A. (2016). Hybrid Mysticism: The Journey to Enlightenment in the Works of Sir Richard Burton and Rudyard Kipling (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26400 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3231 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Hybrid Mysticism: The Journey to Enlightenment in the Works of Sir Richard Burton and Rudyard Kipling by Sheba Aniqua Rahim A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 2016 © Sheba Aniqua Rahim 2016 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. ii Acknowledgements Dr. Shaobo Xie: I am truly grateful for your generosity and meticulous supervision. It has been an honor having you as a supervisor and learning from you. I am thankful also for the support of the English Department at the University of Calgary. Dr. Pamela McCallum: your encouragement and feedback have been invaluable. A special thank you to my colleagues from the Department of General Education at Mount Royal University. Dr. Karim Dharamsi and Dr. Allison Dube: I would not have reached this point without your wisdom. To my dear students: you have enriched my life and your love and enthusiasm for literature inspired me to reach this point of completion. Jessica Yu: our lively conversations and moments of contemplation will not be forgotten. Thank you, Samantha Orthlieb, for all that you have shown me. Kelly Schwab: I express much gratitude for the love and kindess that you have shown me during the final phase of writing. Mrs. Ruby Ramraj: this thesis is the result of a promise I made to you. To all who have supported me in life and opened me to other ways of knowing, thank you! Finally, I am forever grateful to my parents, Munna and Manjoor Rahim, for the love, encouragement, and support. My passion for books and learning started with you! iii Dedication To the memory of Dr. Victor J. Ramraj—the man who showed the way. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .................................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1 THE SHAPING OF HYBRID DISCOURSE IN THE WORKS OF SIR RICHARD BURTON AND RUDYARD KIPLING: AN INTRODUCTION...........1 CHAPTER 2 MAGIC, EDUCATION, AND RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM AND THE SHAPING OF KIM’S HYBRIDITY: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EARLY TO MIDDLE CHAPTERS OF KIM ..............................................................................44 CHAPTER 3 JOURNEY TO ENLIGHTENMENT: “UNITY WITHIN MULTIPLICITY” IN KIPLING’S KIM ...............................................................................................121 CHAPTER 4 “WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?” HYBRIDITY AND THE TRICKSTER GOD IN KIPLING’S THE JUNGLE BOOK ..........................................................185 CHAPTER 5 PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA: HYBRIDITY AND BURTON’S JOURNEY TO ENLIGHTENMENT ........................................................................................251 CHAPTER 6 STONE TALK AND THE KASIDAH: “UNITY WITHIN MULTIPLICITY” AND BURTON’S ENLIGHTENED POETICS OF TRUTH ................................302 CHAPTER 7 TRACING THE ARC OF HYBRID DISCOURSE: A CONCLUSION ..343 WORKS CITED ..............................................................................................................357 v CHAPTER 1 The Shaping of Hybrid Discourse in the Works of Sir Richard Burton and Rudyard Kipling: An Introduction I have dedicated my research to an examination of hybridity in selected works by Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) and Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)—two famous Victorian writers who have left indelible marks on contemporary literary consciousness. Kipling and Richard Burton are two English colonial figures who, at first glance, bear little resemblance. For his masterful works of prose and poetry, Poet Laureate Kipling is lauded by many for having captured the exquisite beauty, complexity, and diversity of the world. Burton is remembered often as a powerful and misunderstood figure whose interests were at times considered salacious, brash, and offensive to Victorian sensibilities regarding race, sexuality, gender, and religion, politics, and more. My interest and devotion to the study of their works stem originally from a fascination regarding their enigmatic and ambiguous portrayal of hybridity. I began my journey researching these figures by simply asking: what is the function of hybridity in their works and why are their portrayals of this notion conceived of similarly? Furthermore, I noted that the concept of hybridity was intriguingly explored through multiple and recurring depictions of the emblem of the trickster hybrid god in their select writings. In addressing these fundamental questions, I am led to assert that this specific emblem of hybridity—the trickster hybrid god—represents not only the art of boundary transgression, but more importantly, the manifestation of a singular subjectivity that enables the achievement of enlightenment for their featured heroic characters. Harold Scheub defines “[t]he trickster . [as] outrageous. Humans move from one state to another, but the trickster’s is the liminal state, the state of betwixt and between. Trickster is 1 undifferentiated energy, ungovernable” (6). Further, he speaks distinctly of the importance of “the trickster moment” (3) and how “during that moment, we are out of ourselves. We are broken into parts: we are man and woman, god and human, hero and villain; all of the possibilities of life. We are taken apart and rebuilt. It is for that reason that the moment revitalizes us, freshens us” (3). He explains further on the interconnections between the hero and the trickster: The trickster and the hero seem to stand on either side of the . [main] character, the one his shameful origins, the other his glimmering vision. The seemingly antithetical characters are not at all contraries. [T]he hero and the trickster are the most durable of storytelling figures, ancient, unchanging, adapting to contemporary realities but ever the same. (12) I my work, I refer to trickster hybrid god as the term that captures best the ambiguous character/figure that appears in Kipling and Burton’s works to explore issues of race, culture, and religion through shapeshifting and assuming the guises of others (with the intent to discover new possibilities of identity). In a way, I argue that a specific mythical character or symbol appears in the works of both writers who serves to question, at times, dominant ideas of racial superiority, and shape awareness. As Scheub puts it: Myth is not myth until the meaningfulness necessary to the shaping of human experience is achieved. [Myth creates symbols that] reorder it and in the reordering provide it with fresh meaning—this organization does not take place without something emerging from the very act of arranging. Images are brought together, and in the bringing