College Literature

While critics have begun to consider G.V. Desani’s Anglo-Indian novel All About H. Hatterr, few have considered the novel’s paratextual structure—composed of a series of fictional prefaces, a primary narrative, and an appendix—in any considerable depth. More often, critics view the novel in terms of its supposed apoliticism and ahistoricism. My essay argues that an investigation of its form can re-invigorate discussions of historical critique in Desani’s text. I read the novel’s experimental structure as a means to critique Western complicity toward colonial oppression in India, in that the paratexts repeatedly urge the reader to ignore and belittle questions of politics and history that pervade the primary narrative. As such, I reveal how the paratexts that frame the narrative engender misreading and misinterpretation. I thus link the novel’s form with questions of colonialism, and I examine how Desani’s text, in encouraging readers to misinterpret it, provides a critical investigation into questions of colonial authority.