Anachronism in the story "The thief and the dogs" by Naguib Mahfouz

Time in the novel follows a horizontal movement, but occasionally some disturbance occurs in time''s element which is called as anachronism by critics and is emerged as two retrospective and prospective forms. By taking a descriptive-analytic method, in the present study an attempt was made to investigate the anachronism concept in novel The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz. The findings reveal that the anachronism applied by Naguib Mahfouz reflects the political and mental conflicts in Egypt leading to consistency in the story, the development of its atmosphere and the reader''s persuasion. Applying events related to the past is noticed more than the events related to the future. This story entails many external retrospective views considered as the main lines in the life of the story hero, indicating that these retrospective views make many problems in the story resolved.