Willie Van Peer 
Stylistics and Psychology [PDF ebook] 
Investigations of Foregrounding

First published in 1986, Stylistics and Psychology is an empirical investigation into foregrounding. The theory of foregrounding has received little in the way of empirical testing within the field of stylistics and literary criticism. The book engages extensively with the author’s own research involving psychological testing and provides a rigorous, scientific approach to stylistics. It presents evidence of a general link between foregrounding and evaluation, apparent in correlations between foregrounding and evaluation, between foregrounding and reader preference, and between foregrounding and readers’ evaluative associations. Stylistics and Psychology will appeal to those with an interest in literary criticism and linguistics.