Quite a few novels used interior monologue or the free indirect style in their rendition of a central character's perceptions of the world and inner thoughts in response. Thus the novelist will dispense with grammar, with logic, with neat, orderly sentences and predictable pauses. Joyce lets Molly Bloom run on for one extended sentence of 64 pages in Ulysses . You have overheard scraps of talk that filled you with amazement. You have gone to bed at night bewildered by the complexity of your feelings.
Stream of consciousness is the rendition of the astonishing disorder of our minds.
I would argue that perception itself becomes the focus of these novels. Many others have also worked with the technique. Many writers have also alluded to Virginia Woolf in their novels. See the Writers on Woolf page.