COHESION IN THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SHORT STORIES AS A DEVICE OF FOREGROUNDING

Abstract

The article considers the role of cohesion in the creation of the stylistic device of foregrounding. The quantitative and qualitative aspects of foregrounding (G. Leech) are characterized in the contemporary short stories of the American writers in the genre of flash fiction. In these texts the connection of stylistic devices in strong positions such as the beginning and the ending of the stories is observed. The language means of creating lexical, image-making and phonetic cohesion are determined. Especially explicit technique is the use of extended metaphor (the stories by R. Carney, D. Newkirk, G. Evary) which gives a considerable emotional effect to the narration. The extended metaphors in the texts are a component of the quantitative aspect of foregrounding and at the same time they actualize image-making cohesion. 10 stories out of the analyzed 15 texts are united by the identical lexical cohesion of the strong positions. Five works contain antonymic cohesion of the text parts where the device of foregrounding is realized with the help of antithesis. Thus, the text endings become something like happy end in the characters' lives, therefore it is possible to speak about emotional gradation (the stories by J. Updike, D. Shea). The highest frequency of lexical repetitions is present in the story by A. Guendron where the title word "scarves" is used 16 times and acquires a symbolic character, becomes an artistic detail in the memory about the mother. The image-making cohesion in a new flash fiction story by D. Newkirk "Whispers" in combination with phonetic cohesion expressed by alliterations provides the foregrounding of prose poeticalness. It is proved that the suggested notion by G. Leech and M. Short "cohesion of foregrounding" reveals a significant semantic and pragmatic role of cohesion as a device of realizing qualitative and especially quantitative aspects of foregrounding the text components in the contemporary short stories as well as actualizes the effect of prose poeticalness.