160. IDC 101- Stream of Consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a narrative style that tries to capture a character’s thought process in a realistic way. It’s an interior monologue, but it’s also more than that. Because it’s mimicking the non-linear way our brains work, stream-of-consciousness narration includes a lot of free association, looping repetitions, sensory observations, and strange (or even nonexistent) punctuation and syntax—all of which helps us to better understand a character’s psychological state and worldview. It’s meant to feel like you have dipped into the stream of the character’s consciousness. Authors who use this technique are aiming for emotional and psychological truth. They want to show a snapshot of how the brain actually moves from one place to the next. Thought it isn’t linear, these authors point out that we don’t think in logical, well-organized, or even complete sentences.
Stream of consciousness can also be said to be the narrative technique which is non-dramatic fiction and which intends 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.
The stream-of-consciousness novel commonly uses the narrative techniques of interior monologue. Probably the most famous example is James Joyce’s "Ulysses" (1922), a complex evocation of the inner states of the characters Leopold and Molly Bloom and Stephen Dedalus. William Faulkner’s "The Sound and the Fury" (1929) is another example which records the fragmentary and impressionistic responses in the minds of three members of the Compson family to events that are immediately being experienced or events that are being remembered. Virginia Woolf’s "The Waves" (1931) a complex novel in which six characters recount their lives from childhood to old age is another example of stream of consciousness novel.