A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF READY PLAYER ONE: FOREGROUNDING TECHNIQUES AND THEIR NARRATIVE FUNCTIONS

Abstract

This research article examines Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player One (2011),   through the lens of stylistics, focusing on the concept of foregrounding. Foregrounding is a stylistic technique that makes certain linguistic features stand out from ordinary language, attracting the reader's attention to create a particular understanding in the forefront while going through the text. The study, by using qualitative research method and using Jan Mukařovský  (1964) and Geoffrey Leech (1969)’s concepts of Foregrounding: Deviation and  Parallelism, explores the psychological and social implications of cyber immersion on the young individual in Ready Player One by analyzing how Cline uses foregrounding through repetition, graphological features, allusions, and unusual language patterns to highlight its major themes such as technology, identity, nostalgia, and virtual reality. The analysis demonstrates that foregrounding plays a significant role in enhancing readers' engagement and understanding of the novel’s major concerns related to the psychological implications of excessive cyber immersion and the social impact of unchecked digital convergence. This work is useful for future researchers to investigate its theme and methodology further in other novels by the same author and other similar works continually being written in today’s cyber world.