A Neurocognitive Approach to Rudyard Kipling's Early Works and to Kim.

Kipling praised Allah for giving him two sides to his head, and the two-sided quality to his works has been noted and explained in many different fashions. Neurocognitive theory gives us a literal basis for two-sidedness, namely the left and right brain hemispheres and their differing functions. Looked at in terms of hemispheric concerns, we can see how different some of his works are. "Baa Baa, Black Sheep" is very right hemispheric in its distress. The Mowgli stories explore the left side functions, with his learning rules and patterns. Stalky & Co. introduces the concept of game and its way of joining left-side rules with the right-side joys of winning. Kim is a particularly rewarding ground for such an analysis. It manipulates readers to feel unusually positive right-hemispheric responses not often felt. The disagreement over how to interpret the end is also comprehensible in terms of critics' own hemispheric emphases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]