Narrative time is one of the most important structural components of narrative, playing an active role in producing meaning and representing historical experience. Drawing on Gérard Genette’s narratological theory, the present study investigates the function of narrative time in representing collective memory in the novels of Abd al-Salam al-Ujayli, with particular emphasis on the two components of order and duration. The study aims to show how the manipulation of the narrative temporal structure, beyond its formal function, contributes to the reconstruction of historical memory and the collective lived experience of society. The research adopts a descriptive-analytical approach based on qualitative textual analysis. Within this framework, the components of narrative time are identified and examined based on Genette’s theoretical categories and by extracting indicative examples of breaks in narrative order (analepsis and prolepsis), as well as transformations in narrative duration (deceleration and acceleration), which are analyzed in terms of their semantic and historical functions.The findings show that the organization of narrative time in al-Ujayli’s novels, through the predominance of analepsis and the uneven distribution of narrative duration, serves to represent the historical experience and the formation of collective memory. The characters’ recurrent returns to memories associated with events such as the October War, the construction of the Euphrates Dam, and the experience of Arab unity turn the past into an active element in the interpretation of the present. In addition, descriptive pauses, dialogue scenes, especially those that connect individual experience to broader social and historical contexts, and the techniques of summary and ellipsis contribute to a selective foregrounding of certain moments in contemporary Syrian history, such as the consequences of the collapse of Arab unity and the displacement of peasants following large-scale developmental projects, while downplaying others. As a result, collective memory in these novels is represented as a fragmented and continually reinterpretable experience.