Season 1. Episode 4. Dave Balasubramanian: Kipling and \u27otherness\u27

Episode 4 explores a giant of English literature and “bard of Empire”, Rudyard Kipling. Dave Balasubramanian examines the “other” in Kipling’s work with reference to race and gender. He questions the portrayal of Kipling’s treatment of “natives” as complimentary towards or critical of colonialism while exploring Kipling’s own understanding of England and India as not only geographical places, but abstractions shaped by their colonial connections. Dave Balasubramanian was born in India and spent his early childhood in Scotland and South Yemen before returning to India for high school. He has a BA in English and Theatre, and an MA in Literature from Middlebury College, USA. Dave has taught at high school and university levels, been a veterinary nurse, a storeperson in builders’ supplies, and a stay-at-home husband and father. He has recently moved to country WA, where he hopes to finish his PhD thesis on Kipling at the University of Notre Dame Australiahttps://researchonline.nd.edu.au/highandcliff/1003/thumbnail.jp