Literary notes about foreground (AI summary)
In literature the term "foreground" carries a range of meanings that extend beyond a mere spatial description. It can denote the part of a scene that catches immediate attention, whether that be a vivid character or a striking physical detail, as when a character’s appearance is brought into focus [1] or when landscape elements are rendered with a luminous immediacy [2]. At times it serves as a metaphor for what occupies a central position in one’s consciousness or intellectual debate, highlighting the prominence of ideas or values that stand in contrast to the receding background of lesser concerns [3] [4]. Moreover, its usage often signifies shifts in narrative focus—from details that populate the near visual field to elements that command abstract or symbolic significance [5] [6]—thereby enriching both the descriptive and thematic layers of a text.
- His broad, grizzled head, with its shining patch of baldness, was in the immediate foreground of our vision.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - In the foreground glowed the warm tints of the gardens.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - During this interval she had become a less vivid and importunate image, receding from his foreground as May Welland resumed her rightful place in it.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - I see over and beyond all these national wars, new "empires," and whatever else lies in the foreground.
— from The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - She had an extraordinary way of advancing, with a timid rush, as it were, into the foreground, and then receding again, melting back into the shadows.
— from The Best Short Stories of 1917, and the Yearbook of the American Short Story - When these latter are ever set aside, the old trace comes into the foreground.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross
