Artistic Paradox in Arar's Poems: A Case Study of Ashiat Vadi al-Yabis

Artistic paradox is one of the most important elements of semantic deviation and one of the main issues of literary criticism. Paradox is the seemingly unreasonable and impossible combination of two opposing concepts with a truth within, which a curious mind can understand. In the descriptive-analytical study, paradox was discussed and its techniques were explored in the Ashiat Vadi al-Yabis (عشیات وادی الیابس), composed by Jordanian poet Mostafa Wahbi al-Tal, known as Arar. The aim was to see how the techniques have caused the marked images. It was shown that the poet has expressed some political, social and domestic concepts using a paradoxical language and has also used specific similes, metaphors and metonymies of paradoxical images to introduce new concepts, make specific points and create imagery creativities. Though paradox is not the only way of defamiliarizing in his poems, but is his best means. The most important factors helping the use of paradox in Arar's poems can be exact differentiations and imaginations as well as social and political status of society, the existence of false asceticism and piety, and hypocrisy. It was also shown that paradox has not only been used in the divan for aesthetic purposes but to show paradoxical concepts and as a result show the truth. That is, the poet has used paradoxical images and meanings to defamiliarize the things and to present artistically and beautifully his thoughts and artistic experiences.