A Stylistic Study Of William Faulkner's Light In August: A Foregrounding Interpretation

William Faulkner (1897-1962), a Nobel Prize winner, is not only the greatest modern novelist of the twentieth century in America, but also a renowned stylist who makes prominent contributions to the artistic forms of fiction. His masterpiece Light in August is typical of such features, whose profound themes and stylistic innovations make it a model of literary research in the world. Therefore, the studies of the stylistic features of the novel have received a lot of attentions. The majority of scholars have employed the literary theories to analyze the style of the novel; however, few of them have comprehensively investigated the style by means of a certain linguistic theory. In this regard, this thesis attempts to adopt the foregrounding theory as the basis to systematically analyze and interpret the stylistic characteristics of the novel.Based on the research achievements of the predecessors, the thesis A stylistic study of William Faulkner's Light in August: A Foregrounding Interpretation employs the foregrounding theory into the systematic analysis and interpretation of foregrounded linguistic expressions in Light in August, aiming at a preliminary study of the stylistic characteristics and Faulkner's techniques in portraying the characters and highlighting the themes by means of prominent languages in the novel. Armed with the foregrounding theory, the thesis consists of six chapters:Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the background knowledge and the methods of the study, which is to use the foregrounding theory to study the foregrounded features of Light in August at different linguistic levels by means of description, interpretation and evaluation so as to display Faulkner's stylistic innovations.Chapter Two discusses the theoretical foundation of the thesis, namely, the foregrounding theory. By foregrounding, it means that a certain linguistic feature violates the accepted linguistic rules or strengthens the rules through repetition or parallelism at various linguistic levels. As a result, the thesis first critically reviews the development of the foregrounding theory, giving prominence to the theoretical contributions made by representative theorists of different linguistic schools. Then, by offering an elaboration on their distinctiveness and inherited relations, the thesis attempts to present a complete historical development of foregrounding and aims at laying a sound theoretical foundation for the whole study.Chapter Three discusses the deviated language used at various linguistic levels in Light in August. At the phonological level, misspellings of words show the dialectal features of negro English; at the graphological level, the foregrounded punctuations and capitalized letters conduce to portraying characterization and psychological conditions; at the lexical level, a large number of original noun compounds and adjective compounds are created with lexical formation rules, which are characterized by being short in space, compact in meaning, vivid and innovative in spelling; at the semantic level, those transferred epithetic expressions and symbolism succeed in highlighting the themes and personalities; at the syntactic level, double negation with negative meanings, unusual clause themes and lengthy sentences succeed in imitating the stream of consciousness and demonstrating the themes and the characters; at the narrative level, multiple strands and multiple points of view that display Faulkner's narrative innovation aim at highlighting the motifs of the novel.Chapter Four discusses the overregular language features in Light in August at phonological and syntactic levels. The phonological figures, such as alliteration and end-rhyme, are directly responsible for the poetical and musical tendency of the novel. Syntactic overregularity mainly realized by repetition and parallelism is conducive to the cohesion of the text and giving prominence to characters and the motifs of the novel.Chapter Five employs the cohesion and density theories to interpret the coherence of the novel and in this way it can demonstrate how Faulkner uses the unusual languages to portray complicated mentality. The poetical, fluid and iconic qualities are summarized through the systematic analyses of the foregrounded language features.Chapter Six summarizes the whole content of the thesis and presents the limitations of the present study and the suggestions for the future researches. The stylistic analyses of the thesis are far from being perfect, and there is a great necessity to make a more profound interpretation in the future.The stylistic analyses of the thesis demonstrate that Faulkner's linguistic innovations cover a variety of the linguistic aspects in Light in August. These foregrounded linguistic items are original and terse in form, vivid and expressive in meaning, which succeed in portraying characters and foregrounding themes. By means of the abundant foregrounded languages, Faulkner succeeds in representing the inseparable relationship between style and content. Armed with the foregrounding theory, the stylistic interpretation of the novel can help readers to efficiently understand and appreciate Faulkner's stylistic innovations and his profound themes of Light in August. I believe that this study can enrich the research forms of the novel and provide some referential values for the future studies in this field.