A Study of the Ways of Foregrounding in A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Abstract

Foregrounding in verse or poetry is to surprise the reader with de-automatization of what is normally taken for granted by throwing into relief the linguistic sign against the background of the norms of ordinary language 1). In prose or literary works, this distinct stylistic technique can be achieved by highlighting or making prominent some linguistic features for some specific effects against the background of the rest of the text. How can this stylistic technique of foregrounding be achieved in Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, in which hard-boiled style may well be thought of as the internal norm? I suppose in this paper that complex sentence, elliptical sentence and narration are foregrounded as the deviations from the norm they are placed in. I will investigate them in the three scenes of the novel.