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A cliché (UK: / ˈ k l iː ʃ eɪ / or US: / k l iː ˈ ʃ eɪ /; French:) is a saying, idea, or element of an artistic work that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning, novelty, or figurative or artistic power, even to the point of now being bland or uninteresting. [1]
Tara Brabazon discusses how the "school ma'am on the colonial frontier has been a stock character of literature and film in Australia and the United States. She is an ideal foil for the ill mannered, uncivilised hero. In American literature and film, the spinster from East – generally Boston – has some stock attributes."
A common central theme of such literature and folktales is the often forceful "taming" of shrewish wives by their husbands. [2] Arising in folklore, in which community story-telling can have functions of moral censorship or suasion, it has served to affirm traditional values and moral authority regarding polarised gender roles, and to address social unease about female behavior in marriage.
A stock character is a dramatic or literary role representing a generic type in a conventional, simplified manner and recurring in many fictional works. [1] The following list labels some of these stereotypes and provides examples. Some character archetypes, the more universal foundations of fictional characters, are also listed.
Cliché – Idea which has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or being irritating; Lowbrow (art movement) – Underground visual art movement; Museum of Bad Art – Art museum in Boston, Massachusetts; Poshlost – Russian word for a particular negative human character trait or man-made thing or idea
Bromide in literary usage means a phrase, cliché, or platitude that is trite or unoriginal. It can be intended to soothe or placate; it can suggest insincerity or a lack of originality in the speaker. [1] [2] Bromide can also mean a commonplace or tiresome person, a bore (a person who speaks in bromides).
The similar concept of transmigration has been used frequently to the point of cliché in the sense of people "switching bodies", in which the identity of a character transfers to another's body, either unilaterally or by exchange (e.g. Vice Versa), or to an animal (e.g. The Once and Future King) or object (e.g. The Picture of Dorian Gray).
The second chapter gives meaning to the first, as it explains other events the character experienced and thus puts present events in context. In Khaled Hosseini 's The Kite Runner , the first short chapter occurs in the narrative's real-time; most of the remainder of the book is a flashback.