Satire plays a prominent and often controversial role in postcolonial fiction. Satire and the Postcolonial Novel offers the first study of this topic, employing the insights of postcolonial comparative theories to revisit Western formulations of "satire" and the "satiric." Through the varying lenses provided by satire's relation to irony, allegory, narrative, and the grotesque, this book offers new readings of important novels by V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad), Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) and Salman Rushdie (India. It presents a detailed study of the complex and multidirectional ways satire has engaged with the history and messy aftermath of empire.