VISUAL FOREGROUNDING IN CONTEMPORARY FICTION

VISUAL FOREGROUNDING IN CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Author:  Z.M. Chemodurova

Affiliation:  Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia

Abstract:  This paper proposes a hypothesis according to which visual foregrounding is viewed as a formal feature of modern texts focusing readers’ attention on various unbound semiotic resourses (such as drawings, maps, photographs) contributing to the transmodal meaning-making process and performing a range of functions in the narrative.
The findings of the research presented in the article prove that the strategy of visual foregrounding contributes to enhancing ludic modality of fictional texts, their emotional potential, particularly narrative empathy, сonveying their heightened expressivity.
Multimodal resonance is believed to be the cognitive mechanism ensuring the integrative function that visual foregrounding performs in the literary text. Visual images are considered to be visual props engaging readers in games of make-believe and, thus, intensifying their mental world construction process.

Keywords:  visual foregrounding; multimodal fiction; multimodal resonance;
multimodal metaphor; narrative empathy; expressivity.

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For citation:  Chemodurova, Z. M. (2021). Visual foregrounding in contemporary fiction. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 2, 5-15.

Pages:  05-15