Rethinking Time in Postcolonial Fiction: A Study of Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Abstract

This research examines the nonlinear and spectral representation of time in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka. The study analyzes how the novel departs from traditional linear models of time by engaging with concepts such as relational time, hetero-temporality, and lived duration. Using an interdisciplinary framework that draws upon physics, historiography, and literary theory, the research demonstrates that the novel portrays time as fragmented, recursive, and ethically significant. It foregrounds that Karunatilaka’s spectral narrative structure reflects a postcolonial condition where memory, trauma, and historical violence are entangled across human and planetary dimensions. The findings suggest that the novel offers a new narrative logic: one that challenges dominant historical paradigms and reimagines temporality as a relational and moral force within postcolonial literature.