Stream of unconsciousness
A narrative mode transcribing somniloquy and dream actions.
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Stream of unconsciousness is a narrative mode in literary criticism that transcribes an author's unconscious dialogue or somniloquy during sleep, portraying their point of view through dream actions. It features disjointed leaps in ideation, bizarre word creation, and loss of self-censorship, often taking the form of a tragedy. The term was introduced to literary studies from the independent music industry by Bryan Lewis Saunders in 2005, having long been a misnomer for stream of consciousness.
Quick Facts
- Field
- Literary criticism
- Known for
- Narrative mode transcribing unconscious dialogue during sleep
Facts from the source article.
History
Audio recordings of Dion McGregor (1922–1994) are considered a precursor to the stream of unconsciousness, though his somniloquy was never transcribed as such. Jim Shaw's 1995 work "Dreams" collects illustrations and detailed dream descriptions. Leif Elggren and Thomas Liljenberg's "Experiment with Dreams" (Stockholm Feb. 1996) also contributed to the method's formation.
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Sources
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.
- Wikipedia: Stream of unconsciousness (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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