Work

Spectral interlocutions and the politics of unfinished: Buddhism, haunting, and memory in Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: (2022) offers a reimagined depiction of the Sri Lankan civil war aftermath in the context of restorative justice. It offers a discussion of how haunting serves as a sociological process for truth-telling, recognition, and reconciliation within post-war Sri Lanka. Using a theoretical approach rooted in Derrida's hauntology, Avery Gordon's notion of haunting, and Buddhist cosmology in the sociology of literature framework, this research examines how the novel reworks the afterlife as a site of moral and collective accountability. The war photographer, Maali Almeida, who died during the civil war, is a witness. Through his ghostly presence, he forces the living to reveal hidden atrocities and acknowledges collective damage. His haunting challenges political amnesia. And it represents how memory, justice, and healing are indistinguishably related in a violence-plagued society. Finally, by imagining haunting as a metaphor and a means of restorative justice, the paper argues that Karunatilaka's novel does not imagine reconciliation through retribution or denial, but in terms of truth-telling, memory, and ethical liberation.

Source: Frontiers in Sociology

DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1712299

Authors: Neethu Mary Humphry, Ajit I

Institution: Vellore Institute of Technology University

Language: English

Topic: Memory, Trauma, and Testimony

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,418