Between Cliché And Illumination: Rethinking Literary Tropes Through The Lens Of Perception, A Comparative Inquiry Into Linguistic Repetition, Fragmented Reality, And The Physics Of Light

Abstract

This article examines the intersection between literary tropes and perceptual theory, with particular emphasis on the function of the cliché as a residual yet dynamic linguistic structure that operates as a conduit for thought. Drawing on analogies from the physics of light, especially the phenomenon of flicker fusion, whereby discontinuous flashes are perceived as continuous illumination, the study proposes a conceptual and analytical framework for re-evaluating literary clichés beyond their conventional dismissal as signs of banality. Rather than inert expressions, clichés are approached here as perceptual stabilisers embedded in cultural memory. To move beyond metaphor, the paper develops a three-step analytical framework (fragment identification, fusing agent, and perceptual continuity) which is systematically applied to sustained close readings of selected literary texts. Through an analysis of works by Virginia Woolf and Albert Camus, the study demonstrates how literary narratives activate, withhold, or destabilise clichés in order to reorganise fragmented experience and interrogate inherited modes of understanding. Rooted in the defamiliarization strategies used by Russian Formalism, refined by poststructuralist understanding of interpretation and cultural saturation, and shaped by affect theory’s definition of language as force rather than mere representation, this study places the cliché within a reimagined poetics of perception. It suggests a re-placement of clichés within literary criticism as lenses rather than signs of aesthetic exhaustion, enabling access to an expanded spectrum of narrative and perception nuances.