The Foregrounding And The Effect In Tony Morrison’s Beloved

Beloved is usually criticized as a mosaic, kaleidoscopic and broken picture piecedtogether because of its recursive narrative and bizarre language. Obviously, the unique artwork cannot be born in the way of organizing the bits and pieces at random. The thesis aimsat probing into what are the salient and dominant parts against the background and how theywork together to produce meaning.Foregrounding is a main theoretical tool used in the study of the thesis. Introduction partrecommends the authoress Toni Morrison and her novel Beloved, furthermore summarizesrecent studies at abroad and home on this book and copes with the development offoregrounding theory comprehensively. Foregrounding contains simply two kinds of forms:deviation and parallelism, according to which Chapter One elaborates the phenomenon offoregrounding from angles of the rhetorical devices, style borrowing and features ofconversations and Chapter Two scrutinizes the parallel features at the level of wording，sentence pattern and plot organization; finally based upon the study in Chapter One and Two,Chapter Three goes further to discuss the aesthetic, coherent and especially communicativeeffects of foregrounding in the novel where it is proved that both the graceful, calmunderstatement in line with aesthetic effect and the coherent grave mood of emotionalcatharsis serve its communicative purpose. In conclusion, it is reconsidered that Morrison’sskillful use of foregrounding devices shows its dominant tonality in the mosaic picture andreinforces its meaning as an art work. Beloved challenges the dominant white culture anddeserves the awarding of the Noble Prize in1993, for its perfect innovation and far-reachingsignificance.The analysis of the foregrounding devices in Beloved is an effective manner to interpretthe idea that it is meant to express. And the momentous subject matter in Beloved is deepenedby the authoress’ perfect use of foregrounding.