Temporal Dislocations: Non-linear Time, and Postcolonial Anxiety in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20142793

Abstract

The study attempts to analyse the significance of Tayeb Salih’s novel ‘Season of Migration to the North’ by examining its non-linear temporality, highlighting temporal displacement as a tool for depicting the anxiety and disjuncture of identity associated with the postcolonial experience. Through a qualitative analysis of the novel within the paradigms of postcolonialism and narrative theory, it becomes clear how memories, flashbacks, and circular distortions have disrupted the linearity of time. The analysis reveals that the novel employs temporal cycles and interruptions in which past and present merge, reflecting the psychological turmoil of postcolonial individuals. Memory proves to be the key tool for blurring the boundaries of time, through which colonial history invades the characters’ present experience. Using the characterisations of Mustafa Sa’eed and an anonymous narrator, this study demonstrates how disrupted temporality reflects inner conflicts, culture shock, and historical trauma. Overall, it is argued that non-linear temporality is not only a structural technique but a means by which linear historiography associated with imperialism can be critiqued. In this way, the study makes an important contribution to scholarship on postcolonial literature by exploring how form and theme intersect within a postcolonial context.