ABSTRACT
Teeth, in particular false ones, have received limited attention in literary studies. Excluding recent papers by Clayton Carlyle Tarr (2017) and Andrea Goulet (2017), on the rare occasions where they are considered, teeth tend to be analysed for their metaphorical meaning in broader arguments that connect imagery with other social themes. Their material histories and prominence as comic motifs have often been neglected. Responding to this patchy coverage and highlighting the importance of teeth in key literary works, this chapter investigates the rich use of false teeth users in the late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writings of H. Rider Haggard and Rudyard Kipling. By re-examining texts including King Solomon’s Mines (1885) and ‘Mrs. Bathurst’ (1904), which have until now been read in ways that have overlooked key dental, biographical and cultural contexts, this chapter provides a new approach to reading teeth in literature: specifically, the analysis of dentures as metonym, metaphor, and comic prop. The chapter argues that Haggard’s and Kipling’s works provided metonymic commentaries on the fit and functionality of false teeth while utilising their symbolic flexibility as devices to perform a variety of roles, stimulating comedy, personal reflection, and grotesque intrigue. The chapter also reveals how Haggard and Kipling deployed false teeth as metaphors to interrogate anxieties about the perceived ailing condition of Britain’s colonial forces.
