In some instances of comparative literature research, it is not precisely possible to accredit a literary work to a specific nation or ethnic group. The reason, it seems, lies in the lack of a precise definitions of national literature which in turn is due to the imprecision of the standards set for national literature. Whereas one camp, mainly the disciples of the French school of comparative literature, view language the sole, or at least the strongest criterion for setting the domain of international and national literature, the other camp, mainly the proponents of the American school of comparative literature, casting doubts upon the validity and the efficacy of the linguistic criterion, go for a political identity criterion. Of course, along these two criteria, sometimes other criteria such as historical continuity, shared cultural identity, religious and theological borders, political ideologies and even geographical (co-territorial) borders are also posed.   

To investigate this problem more profoundly, the present authors, criticizing the above-mentioned standards and criteria and displaying their inadequacy and imprecision, have made an attempt to propose cultural components and the cultural discourse dominating the work as a promising standard. 

Modernist novel and short story have played a significant role in modern retouching of mythical narratives and in their recreation in the contemporary narrative literature. One of the major reasons for the particular attention of these novels and short stories to mythical roots is the necessity that the recent authors feel due to alterations in social conditions as well as the fundamental transformations in human’s intellect and attitude. The disorder in today’s chaotic world, the discourses of which are full of contradictions, irregularities, and rule aversion has intrigued today’s man in incoherent, nonlinear and discontinuous narratives abundant with temporal disorders, a characteristic which has a rich background in mythical narratives. A prominent writer in contemporary Persian literature is Shahriyar Mandanipour, the works of whom can resemble mythical narratives in terms of both the structure and the processing of some elements of story, specially the element of time. This study attempts to demonstrate that just like in some mythical narratives, in some of the stories by Mandanipour, 1- time is qualitative and mental not quantitative and objective; 2- time takes its validity from the narrated event or phenomenon; and 3- time is circular and cyclic not linear and straight. Of course, confirming these resemblances does not necessarily imply that Shahriar Mandanipour has consciously been influenced by mythical narratives