Imperialism From The Perspectives of Two British Authors, George Orwell and Rudyard Kipling (Sociology of Literature Approach)

Abstrak

George Orwell and Rudyard Kipling are British authors who have different perspectives towards imperialism. Their works, the essays  “Shooting an Elephant” and “A Hanging” by George Orwell and a novel “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling, give imagery about imperialism. This research is conducted to find out George Orwell and Rudyard Kipling’s intention through their works for describing the concept of imperialism. This research also aims to find out the way the authors express their thoughts in literary work as the response towards imperialism.
This research applies sociology of literature approach in analyzing data. The result of the observation employs Alan Swingewood’s theory to elaborate the works by digging how George Orwell and Rudyard Kipling develop their thoughts about imperialism into work. This research reveals that George Orwell and Rudyard Kipling’s works are expression of the idea that concerns not on the difference in the type of works, but on the values in each work. Those works give enlightenment towards the target readers as a human who treats other people as human too.
Through his works, Orwell persuades people to protect and respect each other without violating others’ right. Meanwhile, Kipling introduces imperialism to children/young generation for imparting imperialism since childhood. These contradicting way describing imperialism encourage both of the authors to show their intention in supporting anti-imperialism and pro-imperialism concept.

Keywords: Imperialism, Anti-Imperialism, British-Author, Colonized, Colonizer