Foregrounding in Fatimah's Sermon of Fadak

Foregrounding is one of the contemporary literary theories، which from a literary perspective to texts، in prose or verse، endeavors to explain and analyze those effective features and elements in the body of the discourse which rhetorically distinguish literary texts from ordinary ones. According to the Formalists، foregrounding is achieved through diminishing or increasing the rules. In other words، the poet or writer through ignoring some of the rules of the standard language or adding some other rules to it foregrounds the form of his language and separates it from normal language. Decreasing the rules occurs in the field of rhetoric but adding to rules takes place in domain of figures of speech. Fatimah، peace be upon her، in the well-known sermon of Fadak defends her legal rights and tries through her prominentdiscourse to guide the people who had ignored the rights of the household of the Prophet، peace be upon him and his progeny، back to the right path. Reflecting on the expressive and influential speech of Fatimah، peace be upon her، reveals the literary splendors in that discourse. Her choice of diction and the combination of words in the structure and fabric of her speech makes the text of the sermon separate from other text. Fatimah، like a competent orator، by infusing literary figures in her speech and making her discourse rhythmic and balanced increases the effect and value of her speech. This research attempts to analyze the sermon of Fadak from a literary perspective in the light of Foregrounding. Accordingly، the narrative text of the sermon is discussed on the basis of decreasing and increasing the rules and in consequence its literary magnificenceis analyzed and explained.