Abstract

This article attempts an experimental mode to ply the depths of a text’s relationship with its circumstances of production. Deploying an immersive praxis, the analysis aims to activate the autonomy of the short story ‘The Quest of Yar Khan’ through a rich engagement with its materiality, particularly its named geography. Revealing the text’s context in this way offers an opportunity to refresh the view of South Asia in peri-Federation Australia, a circumstance of which this short story is part.