An Investigation of Formalist Thoughts in Iran and Arab Countries:A Case Study of Deviation from Norms

Deviation from norms is one of the concepts  studies in contemporary literary criticism, which emanates from the ideas of Russian formalism. Although formalism originated from the west in the realm of literature, it has its own place among different nations in the province of literary criticism. Men of letters and critics of other countries through translation, definition, and the fundamentals and principles of formalism have familiarized their own literary men with this literary school of thought and they, in turn, criticized the important poetic and literary works. On this basis, this article aims at investigating a comparative study of the translation of the Russian formalist thoughts regarding deviation from the norms in Persian and Arab literature. Authors and researchers in the literature of the two nations have paid much attention to deviation from norms via formalist criticism of the works. The investigation and evaluation of translations help in genuine understanding of their sources. Through its analytic-descriptive method, the present study intends to discuss deviation from norms in literature and literary criticism — in Iran and Arab countries — and presents the existing differences in the translation. It also attempts to probe the factors which are relevant in the interpretation of these differences. It is self-evident that some different factors such as culture, language, and ethnicity have affected and shaped a variety of different perspectives.