Semantic Deviation of the Quran in Amal Donqol's Poetry

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate semantic deviation of the Holy Quran in Amal Donqol's poetry. Deviation is one of the techniques of defamiliarization, and was first introduced by the Russian formalists in 1917. Constructivist attitude toward literary texts and emphasis on the aesthetic aspects of the literary works led Formalists to consider literary language as the main factor in development of artistic creations. From among different types of deviation, semantic deviation has the greatest effect on the theme and has unbreakable ties with figurative language, and so, has a significant role in literariness of the works. Donqol is among the poets who have used the concepts of the Holy Quran in their poems. Contrary to his preceding poets, he does not stop at simple and unadorned adaptations of the Quran text, and always recreates the Quranic concepts in his poems and uses the capacities of the Quranic text to express his intended meaning. Therefore, he is different from his preceding poets in that his treatment of the Quranic concepts is based on creativity and innovation. Donqol sometimes presents a meaning different from the original meaning of the Quran, and at other times, replaces his poetic characters with the Quranic ones and then, establishes the structure of his poems based on the outstanding features of those characters. This way, he uses the semantic deviation of the Quran to convey the realities of his contemporary society.