A Comparative Study of the Nonlinear Plot in the Novels of The Kingdom of Strangers by Elias Khoury and I Am Not a Tiger by Mohammad Reza Safdari

One of the important elements of the novel that constitutes its main form is the element of plot. The plot consists of a structure consisting of start, expansion, suspension, climax, untying, and ending. Knowing this structure allows the reader to experience the story well and understand it through a specific time process. Contemporary novelists, given the experience they gained from the new world, They found that in writing the story, the sequence of the plot structure could be broken and disturbed. In such stories, due to the abandonment of accepted traditions of art and the creation of new narrative styles, the events of the story are intertwined and the boundary between beginning and end is not defined. It also sometimes happens that the characters of the story invite the reader to implicitly play a role in the ending of the story. In the present study, based on the descriptive-analytical method, an attempt is made to make a comparative study of nonlinear plot in the novel “Land of the Missing” by Elias Khoury and the novel “I am not a tiger” by Mohammad Reza Safdari. Given that in these two works, traces of modern and postmodern fiction can be seen; Therefore, the initial impression is that the plot of both stories is very confused; In addition to time confusion and lack of sequence in the retelling of events, open ending and inviting the reader to end the story is also used. Also, the novel Land of the Missing has a further collapse in the traditional order of the story.