Transatlantic influences : Twain's H Huckleberry Finn and Kipling's Kim

Abstract EN

Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain are today considered among the most significant writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Their works, especially The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Kim by Twain and Kipling respectively have been hypercanonized in Britain and America over the past six decades and this has lead to major critical attention given to each work.

What has been unusual in the critical canon is that the direct influence of the American writer Mark Twain and his famous Huckleberry Finn on Kipling’s Kim have been largely ignored.

The reason behind such critical neglect has mainly been the nationalism in literatures which started in the nineteenth century and continued to strengthen in the twentieth century.

This study attempts to prove that Kim is indebted to Huckleberry Finn and explores some of the many striking similarities between the novels.

It concludes that it is more gratifying to study contemporary literature cross-culturally instead of limiting attention to national literatures.