Rule reminder

In literary Italian, cleft sentences serve aesthetic and narrative functions: (1) 'Fu' replaces 'è' for historical/narrative past (passato remoto register). (2) The imperfect 'Era' is used for descriptive/background clefts. (3) Clefts create suspense by delaying information. (4) They mark turning points in narratives. (5) Inverted pseudo-clefts add stylistic elegance. (6) Literary clefts often have no explicit corrective contrast — they simply foreground an element for aesthetic or emotional reasons.