Readers ask: Foregrounding in literature?

What is foregrounding in English literature?

Foregrounding is a concept in literary studies concerning making a linguistic utterance (word, clause, phrase, phoneme, etc.) stand out from the surrounding linguistic context, from given literary traditions or from more general world knowledge. As the definition of foregrounding indicates, these are relative concepts.

What is foregrounding in stylistics?

In literary studies and stylistics, foregrounding is a the linguistic strategy of calling attention to certain language features in order to shift the reader’s attention from what is said to how it is said.

What is the role of foregrounding in the analysis of a literary text?

When analyzing a literary text, the presence of foregrounding serves as a clue and an indicator of something that the author wants to insure the reader notices and appreciates or understands. Foregrounding is a literary technique used to emphasize one particular aspect of a work.

What is the effect of foregrounding?

Russian Formalists have claimed that foregrounding increases processing demands and therefore causes slower reading – an effect called retardation. We tested this claim experimentally by having participants read short literary stories while measuring their eye movements.

What is the origin of foregrounding?

The term foregrounding has its origin with the Czech theorist Jan Mukarovský: it is how Mukarovský’s original term, aktualisace, was rendered in English by his first translator (Mukarovský, 1932/1964). But in literature the purpose of foregrounding is to disrupt such everyday communication.

Who coined the term foregrounding?

The Prague scholar Jan Mukarovsky (1891-1975) shaped the notion of foregrounding into a scholarly literary concept. “Foregrounding” literally means “to bring to the front.” The writer uses the sounds of words or the words themselves in such a way that the readers’ attention is immediately captivated.

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What stylistic devices are used in foregrounding?

The favored techniques for creating foregrounding are patterns, such as repetitions; ambiguity, in which meaning is clear but conclusions may be variable; metaphor; tone; parallelism; and diction. Structural elements may also be foregrounded, such as character development and plot structure.

What are types of stylistics?


  • Literary stylistics: Studying forms, such as poetry, drama, and prose.
  • Interpretive stylistics: How the linguistic elements work to create meaningful art.
  • Evaluative stylistics: How an author’s style works—or doesn’t—in the work.

What is deviation and its types?

It means deviation from any written procedure that we have implemented. Now deviation can be of two different types: A) Planned Deviation B) Unplanned Deviation. Planned deviations are those deviations from the procedure that are planned and we know before they occur.

What literature means?


What is deviation in literature?

Lexical Deviation. Lexical deviation in literature occurs when words depart from their normal standard, or when words are invented in a process called neologism or nonce-formation, to create deeper meaning and esthetic value, to achieve a certain (stylistic) effect or to meet a lexical need for a single occasion.

How is Mukarovsky maximum foregrounding achieved?

In poetic language foregrounding achieves maximum intensity to the extent of pushing communication into the background as the objective of expression and of being used for its own sake; it is not used in the services of communication, but in order to place in the foreground the act of expression, the act of speech

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What is Defamiliarization according to Viktor Shklovsky?

The Russian Formalists’ concept of “Defamiliarization”, proposed by Viktor Shklovsky in his Art as Technique, refers to the literary device whereby language is used in such a way that ordinary and familiar objects are made to look different. Thus literary language is ordinary language deformed and made strange.

What is the meaning of parallelism?

Parallelism, also known as parallel structure, is when phrases in a sentence have similar or the same grammatical structure. In its most basic usage, parallelism provides a phrase with balance and clarity. This parallelism gives it a memorable rhythm and repetition.

What is lexical deviation in stylistics?

1 Lexical Deviation: Lexical Deviation: Lexical Deviation: The most obvious examples of lexical deviation are these where a poet makes up a word which did not previously exist. This is called neologism (Short,1969:45). An example of neologism or the invention of new words is nonce-formation.

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