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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]
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).
A stock character is a dramatic or literary character 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.
Literature. Metempsychosis is the title of a work by the metaphysical poet John Donne, written in 1601. [1] The poem, also known as the Infinitati Sacrum, [2 ...
An example of this given by McLuhan is Eugène Ionesco's play The Bald Soprano, whose dialogue consists entirely of phrases Ionesco pulled from an Assimil language book. "Ionesco originally put all these idiomatic English clichés into literary French which presented the English in the most absurd aspect possible."
For example, a story with the stock characters of a knight-errant and a witch is probably a fairy tale or fantasy. There are several purposes to using stock characters. Stock characters are a time- and effort-saving shortcut for story creators, as authors can populate their tale with existing well-known character types.
Example: "From up here on the fourteenth floor, my brother Charley looks like an insect scurrying among other insects." (from "Sweet Potato Pie," Eugenia Collier) (from "Sweet Potato Pie," Eugenia Collier)
A platitude is a statement that is seen as trite, meaningless, or prosaic, aimed at quelling social, emotional, or cognitive unease. [1] The statement may be true, but its meaning has been lost due to its excessive use as a thought-terminating cliché.