A Critique on the Two Rhetoric Figures of Alteration and Quotation in Rhetorical Texts

Alteration and quotation are among the most important and widely used rhetorical figures in Persian literary texts, which, like some other figures of speech, have not been clarified in rhetorical and especially novel Persian texts. In this research, while reviewing different approaches of rhetoricians to these two literary figures, by mentioning some examples and adopting a descriptive-analytical method, a more accurate and complete definition of these two innovative figures and their types is presented through which their differences with some other figures are revealed. In this regard, the functions and aesthetic position and the connection of these two figures with contemporary literary theories as well as the conditions that put these two figures among the novelties or plagiarisms are explained. The results of the research indicate that alteration is related to poetry and quotation belongs to prose, and in both techniques, a poet or writer by applying prominent changes in the main context of verses, hadiths, proverbs and sayings or mentioning some specific words, derivatives and their meanings, manipulates the taken phrase in producing texts, and by using ellipsis and making artistic changes, he/she protects his speech from plagiarism. The various forms of application of these two figures in literary works, on the one hand, have caused brevity, association, ambiguity and richness of figurative forms, and on the other hand, due to inspiration of the speaker from previous works and changing them to create artistic and creative works, the figures are linked to the phenomena such as defamiliarization, hyperbole, intertextuality, and contextualization.