Dual mimicry in the novel "Kim" by R. Kipling

The article analyzes R. Kipling's novel "Kim" in the light of such concepts ofpostcolonial theory as mimicry and hybridity. The image of the protagonist of this work - Kimball O'Hara - is the main subject of the analysis. It represents an example of the specific identity of the Anglo-Indian ("native born"), that forms through double mimicry: assimilation of the cultural patterns of the West and the East. It is noted that ambivalent character of this phenomenon is connected with the synthesis of different cultural elements and their negation through the opposition to another model. The conclusion is made about the peculiarity of the Kipling's understanding of the relations between the colonizers and the colonized: mimicry, oriented, among other things, to assimilation of cultural patterns of colonized people serves to maintain the authority of the colonialists.