ABOUT STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Introduction 

stream of consciousness, narrative technique in nondramatic fiction intended to render the flow of myriad impressions—visual, auditory, physical, associative, and subliminal—that impinge on the consciousness of an individual and form part of his awareness along with the trend of his rational thoughts. The term was first used by the psychologist William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890). As the psychological novel developed in the 20th century, some writers attempted to capture the total flow of their characters’ consciousness, rather than limit themselves to rational thoughts. To represent the full richness, speed, and subtlety of the mind at work, the writer incorporates snatches of incoherent thought, ungrammatical constructions, and free association of ideas, images, and words at the pre-speech level.

Founder of stream of consciousness 

Stream  of  consciousness is  founded by Sir William James  he used this term  in, 

 the principle  of psychology. 

Major figure  of stream of consciousness:

(1)Virginia  Woolf

Virginia Woolf’s famous novel Mrs. Dalloway follows a middle-aged society woman throughout her day, following the main character’s thoughts in interior monologue. She is considered the pioneer of the stream of consciousness narrative technique and also wrote To the Lighthouse and A Room of One’s Own. Her works are highly poetic and were considered very experimental at the time.

(2) James Joyce :

Irish novelist, poet, and short-story writer James Joyce is called one of the most influential 20th-century writers. His novel Ulysses is a perfect example of stream of consciousness writing, following the encounters of Leopold Bloom as he goes about a typical day in Dublin. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is another famous work that many believe is a bit of a self-portrait of Joyce’s own thoughts.

(3).William Faulkner :

Perhaps one of the most significant American writers, William Faulkner, wrote about the old South and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 for his work. His fourth novel, The Sound and the Fury, depicts the stream of consciousness in one of its four sections, where Quentin Compson, one of the main characters, details his thoughts before committing suicide.

(4)William James:

Most famous for his 1,200-page work The Principles of Psychology, psychologist William James explores what makes up the stream of thought in the human being. He is credited with coining the term stream of consciousness, and though he did not write fiction works in this field, he did give the English language a new literary term.

(5)Dorothy Richardson

Dorothy Richardson was a middle-class woman from a suburb of Oxford. She began her writing career with essays and journalistic pieces for magazines, and her work, Pilgrimage, Richardson shows the internal monologue of her character. The work spans three novels and follows a central character, Miriam Henderson, modelled on the author’s own life story.

(6)Henry James

American and British author Henry James helped create the transition between realism and modernism with his writing around the turn of the 20th century. He used the stream of consciousness technique in portions of The Portrait of a Lady. Henry James was the brother of William James, who coined the term.

(7)Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust was ahead of his time with the use of stream of consciousness, which shows up in his novel series In Search of Lost Time, published between 1913 and 1927. Though not a perfect example, this novel shows the internal thoughts of characters regularly and sets the stage for what would become a more common literary technique in the future.

(8)T.S. Eliot

The LoveSong of J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem by T.S. Eliot uses a stream of consciousness to tell the narrator’s thoughts. By employing the point of view of Prufrock, Eliot is able to show just how disjointed and unclear his thought process is. The reader feels that the poem is slightly confusing, but that is because the way the human mind jumps from thought to thought is also disjointed.

(9)Samuel Beckett:

In his trilogy that includes Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett employs stream of consciousness writing. Unfortunately, the plots of these stories are fairly weak because the writer’s primary goal is to keep the narration going to show the character’s thoughts

(10)Toni Morrison:

Toni Morrison wrote often on slavery, and Beloved is one of her novels that uses stream of consciousness. While the technique is not used in the entire novel, she uses it expertly in one of the last chapters as she intermingles the thoughts of three of the characters into one tangled mess. The modern African-American novelist often wrote of the difficulties faced by black Americans.

Characteristics  of stream of consciousness :

Syntax  and grammar :

Stream of consciousness writing does not usually follow ordinary rules of grammar and syntax This is because thoughts are often not fully formed, or they change course in the middle and become "run-on sentences," or they are interrupted by another thought.

Association:

These are the most prominent characteristics of the term. In this term most writers use this . As it is seen in Virginia Woolf’s  novel The Orlando:A biography  in this novel Virginia takes thought of her own. What is her thought about character? In fact this is a biography  of her own relation with vita sackville and it is also the life journey of vita. Association thought seems to be random ; this is not factual information  about the  character.

Repetition :

In  this term writer used repetition many of thoughts  and sentences are used  repeated words and phrases are used as signpost.

Use of punctuation  marks

writers of stream of consciousness often use punctuation in unconventional ways (using italics, ellipses, dashes, and line breaks to indicate pauses and shifts in the character's train of thought).

Stream of  consciousness  in works of writers

The term stream of consciousness  is used in many of writer's  works like Tony Morrison, T.S Eliot, Virginia Woolf  and many others.

Stream of consciousness  in beloved

In the novel beloved Morrison doesn't  use proper capitalization,  proper punctuation marks. She simply inserted gaps between  the sentences. She also makes use of repetition.  She repeated  many words like I am not dead that are frequently  used in the novel.

Stream of consciousness in Mrs. Dalloway  by woolf

Virginia Woolf is known for using stream of consciousness in her writing. The novel Mrs. Dalloway follows the thoughts, experiences, and memories of several characters on a single day in London.

Conclusion :

To sum up it can be said that  the term stream  of consciousness  gives the writer or poet freedom to express their thoughts  and experiences  towards the novel. This term is also give new identity to English literature.