Re-evaluating "Foregrounding": The Prague School's Contributions to Aesthetics

Yang Lei

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2015, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (2) : 81-88.

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Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2015, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (2) : 81-88.
Studies in Chinese and Foreign Aesthetics

Re-evaluating "Foregrounding": The Prague School's Contributions to Aesthetics

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Abstract

"Foregrounding" is a key term of the Prague School, and due to its similarity with "defamiliarization," "foregrounding" has caused some misreading, which further leads to the misunderstanding of the relationship between the Prague School and the Russian Formalism. Starting with this term, the Prague School constructed a sophisticated system of structuralist aesthetics and literary theory, which surpassed the Russian Formalism. The concept of "foregrounding" foretells a contextualist aesthetics, which pointed to the contextualist turn of aesthetics in the 20th century.

Key words

the Prague School / structuralism / foregrounding / contextualism / defamiliarization

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YANG Lei. Re-evaluating "Foregrounding": The Prague School's Contributions to Aesthetics[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2015, 35(2): 81-88

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