A Stylistic Analysis of I Can Fly-10页文档资料

A Stylistic Analysis of I Can Fly

【Abstract】This paper makes a stylistic analysis of foregrounding in I Can Fly on the basis of lexical meanings，discourse semantics and conceptual metaphor.

1. Introduction

I Can Fly is a 2014 American song written and performed by Lana Del Rey. It’s the theme song of Big Eyes， an American biographical film directed by Tim Burton. The film is about how Margaret Keane，an American artist who was famous for her paintings of children with extremely big eyes， had grown from a weak housewife who unwillingly let her husband take credit of all her phenomenally successful and popular paintings from 1950s to 1960s， into an independent and strong woman who could stand out and reveal her identity as the real painter of her works to the world. It is believed to be one of the best feminism films of 2014， according to many film critics.

I Can Fly is played at the end of the film， when Margaret Keane finally won the lawsuit against her husband in court. As the theme song of the film， I Can Fly successfully explicates and deepens the feminism theme of the film by focusing on Margaret’s mental progress from the beginning to the end of the story. Lana Del Rey，its writer and performer， has received a Golden Globe nomination for this song.

This paper aims at using all kinds of linguistic tools to make a stylistic analysis of I Can Fly’ s foregrounding at formal and discourse level， and find out how such foregrounding has supported the feminism theme of the song. In addition， how foregrounding at all levels has helped this song serve better as the theme song of Big Eyes will also be discussed.

2. Analyses of Stylistic Features and Foregrounding

2.1 Lexical Features

According to Leech （1981）， lexical meaning can be further divided into seven types of meanings： conceptual meaning，connotative meaning， social meaning， affective meaning， reflected meaning， collocative meaning and thematic meaning. Among all these meanings， the connotative， affective and social meanings of some words in I Can Fly are very profound.

For example，in the sentence “I was crazy on fire waiting to fly”，the term “on fire” has a social meaning that is closely related to purification and rebirth in Christianity. In the film，after believing in god and gaining power from him， the heroine is eager to get rid of her old life which is filled with lies and begin a new life as an independent，honest woman. By using the term “on fire”， her determination and strong will are shown to the audience. As for connotative meaning，the word “summer” in “You had me

caged up like a bird in mid-summer”，“I was painting in the garden like a ghost in Mid-July”，“I had bright wishes in the summer”，and “Your lies were hard kisses in the summer”often reminds people of “bright”，“warm”，and “liveliness”， while the real life of the heroine was neither bright nor colorful until she won the law suit against her husband. Such contrasts successfully fore grounded the difficulties encountering the heroine and her struggle. In addition， th e word “fight” in “I was fighting for my art，fighting with my lover” has very complicated affective meaning. The first “fight” shows the heroine’s determination to protect her rights as an artist，while the second “fight” has a quite ironical tone， expres sing the heroine’s disappointment of her husband and her melancholy for their dead love. 2.2 Discourse Features

2.2.1 Discourse semantics of I Can Fly

Martin and Rose （2007） identify six sets of resources for making meaning as text， and these sets of meaning are known as discourse systems. The six discourse systems are： appraisal，ideation， conjunction， identification， periodicity， and negotiation.

The appraisal system focuses on evaluation. J.R. Martin and P.R.R. White （2005） regionalized appraisal into three interacting