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Fantastic Borderlands and Masonic Meta-religion in Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King”
Religion and the Arts Pub Date : 2020-07-31 , DOI: 10.1163/15685292-02403002
Lucas Kwong 1
Affiliation  

This article examines Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King” through the lens of Freemasonry’s interreligious ideology. In British India, members of “The Craft” offered what scholar James Laine calls a meta-religion, a fraternity whose emphasis on interreligious tolerance masks power relations between colonizers and colonized. When he became a Freemason, Kipling’s lifelong fascination with India’s religious diversity translated into enthusiasm for the sect’s unifying aspirations. In this context, “The Man Who Would Be King” stands out for how sharply it contests that enthusiasm. The story’s Masonic protagonists determine to find glory and riches in Kafiristan, a borderland region known for its idiosyncratic polytheism. Initially offering an ideal staging ground for Masonic triumphalism, the region ultimately upends Freemasonry’s goal of unifying imperial subjects under a metareligious banner; Kipling’s deployment of the fantastic frames Kafiristan as a borderland, not only between Empire and wilderness, but also between incommensurable visions of reality.



中文翻译:

拉德亚德·吉卜林(Rudyard Kipling)的“将要成为国王的人”中的神奇边疆和共济会超宗教

本文通过共济会的宗教间意识形态考察了吉卜林的“将成为国王的人”。在英属印度,“手工艺品”的成员提出了学者詹姆斯·莱恩所说的元宗教,这是一种博爱,其对宗教间宽容的强调掩盖了殖民者与被殖民者之间的权力关系。当他成为共济会会员时,吉卜林对印度宗教多样性的终生迷恋转化为对教派统一愿望的热情。在这种情况下,“将成为国王的人”以其与这种热情的激烈竞争而脱颖而出。这个故事的共济会主角决定在卡菲里斯丹(Kafiristan)寻找荣耀和财富,该地区以其特质的多神论而闻名。最初为共济会的凯旋主义提供了理想的舞台,该地区最终颠覆了共济会在元宗教旗帜下统一帝国臣民的目标。吉卜林(Kipling)部署了奇异的框架,将卡菲里斯坦(Kafiristan)当作一个边境,不仅在帝国与荒野之间,而且在无与伦比的现实视野之间。

更新日期:2020-07-31
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