Narrative Techniques & Genres Codexery

Stream of consciousness

A narrative mode depicting the flow of thoughts and feelings.

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It is commonly credited to psychologist William James, who used the phrase in his 1890 work The Principles of Psychology.[1] A narrative mode representing the multitude of thoughts and feelings passing through a narrator's mind, often presented as a disjointed or unpunctuated interior monologue, is what literary criticism calls stream of consciousness.[2][3]

Quick Facts

Field
Literary criticism, narrative technique

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

Alexander Bain used the term "stream of consciousness" in 1855 in The Senses and the Intellect.[1] The technique was fully developed by modernist writers such as Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Dorothy Richardson, and Virginia Woolf in the 20th century.[2][4] Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway (1925) blurs the distinction between direct and indirect speech, alternating between omniscient description, indirect interior monologue, and soliloquy.[5] In the 21st century, stream of consciousness appears in works by Jonathan Safran Foer and Brendan Connell.[6]

William James, in his 1890 work The Principles of Psychology, described consciousness as "nothing joined; it flows" and proposed calling it the "stream of thought, consciousness, or subjective life".[1][7] The first complete stream-of-consciousness novel published in English is Pointed Roofs (1915), which is the initial work in Dorothy Richardson's 13-novel series Pilgrimage.[8] The collaborative novel Illuminatus! (1975) by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea continued the use of stream-of-consciousness technique into the 1970s.[9]

What the cited sources add

A 2022 guide to Terrence Malick's directing techniques describes his use of "multiple-streams of consciousness" style, using hushed, ruminative voiceovers to place viewers within characters' internal consciousness.[10] The same guide notes that Malick's stream-of-consciousness approach results in a dynamic, cosmic scale blending suggestive vignettes, jump cuts, and metaphorical imagery.[10] A 2022 review of the film You Won't Be Alone describes it as requiring viewers to "float down its stream of consciousness"[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: London: J. W. Parker, 1855, p.359. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: J. A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary Terms. (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books,1984), pp. 660–1).; ed. Chris Baldick, Oxford: Oxford U.P., 2009, p. 212. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ed. Chris Baldick, Oxford: Oxford U.P., 2009, p. 212. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California, 1954), p. 4.; "Proust". Enjoyment of Literature, New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 498 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: [untitled review], Beno Weiss, Italica, Vol. 67, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), p. 395.; Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, p. 212.; Modernist Fiction. Lexington: University of Kentucky, 1992, p. 55; Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, p. 212.; Dowling, "Mrs Dalloway: Mapping Streams of Consciousness", Twayne Publishers, 1991, p. 46 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "A nine-year-old and 9/11", Tim Adams The Observer, Sunday 29 May 2005; Brendan Connell, The Life of Polycrates and Other Stories for Antiquated Children. Chomu Press, 2010. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: (I, pp.239–43) quoted in Randall Stevenson, Modernist Fiction: An Introduction. (Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky, 1992), p. 39. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Pilgrimage of Dorothy Richardson", Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2000 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Stream of consciousness" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The Fortean Times, issue 17 (August 1976), pp. 26–27. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. "Ultimate Guide to Terrence Malick and His Directing Techniques", 2 September 2022. facts only, no text reused. indiefilmhustle.com
  11. "'You Won't be Alone' review: Waking the Witch", FOX, 2 April 2022. facts only, no text reused. fox5ny.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Stream of consciousness (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Also in the Codexery

Stream of consciousness · Narrative Forms And Devices

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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