Stream of Consciousness and Interior Monologue in Literature

Stream of Consciousness and Interior Monologue Introduction

Stream of counciounes & Interior monologue Sofia Sequeira - Stella Bonvissuto Chiara Lunardini - Alessio PasqualiIntroduction

What is stream of consciousness? Stream of consciousness is a narrative device used in literature "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind". Another term for it is "interior monologue."The term "Stream of Consciousness" was coined by philosopher and psychologist in The Principles of Psychology (1890) William James "Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself as chopped up in bits ... it is nothing joined; it flows. A 'river' or a 'stream' are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let's call it the stream of thought, consciousness, or subjective life."

Stream-of-Consciousness in Literary Criticism

Stream-of-consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual's point of view by providing the written equivalent of their thought processes. This can take the form of interior monologue (see below) or be connected to their actions. Stream-of-consciousness writing is generally considered a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in thought and lack of punctuation. It is distinct from dramatic monologue and soliloquy, where the speaker addresses an audience or a third person, which are mainly used in poetry or drama. In stream of consciousness, a character's thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself); it is primarily a fictional device.

Stream of Consciousness Example from Ulysses

Stream of consciousness example from Ulysses (Molly Bloom's monologue while trying to fall asleep) James Joyce "a quarter after what an unearthly hour I suppose they're just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus they've nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office or the alarmlock next door at cockshout clattering the brain out of itself let me see if I can doze off 1 2 3 4 5 what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars the wallpaper in Lombard Street was much nicer the apron he gave me was like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp and try again so that I can get up early."

Interior Monologue vs. Stream of Consciousness Distinctions

Interior Monologue vs. Stream of Consciousness Many sources use stream of consciousness and interior monologue as synonyms. However, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, they can be distinguished both psychologically and literarily:

• Psychologically, stream of consciousness is the subject matter
• Literarily, interior monologue is the technique for presenting it. In literature:
• An interior monologue always presents a character's thoughts directly, without the apparent intervention of a summarizing or selecting narrator.
• However, it does not necessarily mix thoughts with sensory impressions and does not necessarily violate the norms of grammar or logic, whereas stream of consciousness may do one or both.

Interior Monologue vs. Stream of Consciousness According to Encyclopedia Britannica

Interior Monologue vs. Stream of Consciousness According to Encyclopedia Britannica Online, the two terms are often used interchangeably, but:

• An interior monologue may reflect all the half-thoughts, impressions, and associations that impinge on a character's mind.
• It may also be restricted to an organized presentation of that character's rational thoughts. Ikeep telling myself Idon't need an inner monologue.

Beginnings of Stream of Consciousness to 1930

The Beginnings to 1930 Although stream of consciousness is typically associated with modernist novelists in the early 20th century, several precursors have been identified:

• Laurence Sterne, in the 18th century, with Tristram Shandy, a psychological novel.
• Edgar Allan Poe, with The Tell-Tale Heart, which is said to foreshadow this literary technique.
• Édouard Dujardin, with Les Lauriers sont coupés (1887), which abandoned chronology in favor of free association.
• James Joyce picked up a copy of Dujardin's novel in Paris in 1903, influencing his own style.
• Henry James, in Portrait of a Lady (1881), has also been suggested as a significant precursor.

Development of Stream of Consciousness by Modernist Writers

The Beginnings to 1930 However, it was only in the 20th century that the stream of consciousness technique was fully developed by modernist writers.

• Marcel Proust, in À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-1927) (In Search of Lost Time), is often presented as an early example of a writer using stream of consciousness.
• However, Robert Humphrey argues that Proust was primarily concerned with the reminiscent aspect of consciousness and that he was "deliberately recapturing the past for the purpose of communicating", rather than writing a true stream-of- consciousness novel. Marcel Proust

Dorothy Richardson and The Egoist

Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage

The Beginnings to 1930 THE ILGRIMAGE OF DOROTHY RICHARDSON JOANNE WINNING Dorothy Richardson is the first English writer to use stream of consciousness, in her novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915- 1967).

The Egoist and May Sinclair's Contribution

Published the Ist and 15th of each month. THE EGOIST AN INDIVIDUALIST REVIEW. Formerly the NEW FREEWOMAN. No. I. VOL. I. THURSDAY, JANUARY Ist, 1914. SIXPENCE. Assistant ( RICHARD ALDINGTON. Editor : DORA MARSDEN. B.A. Editors z & LEONARD A. COMPTON-RICKETT. CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE LIBERTY, LAW, AND DEMOC FERREX ON PETULANCE. Ferrex. By q Os INTERFERENCE WITH THE ENVIRONMENT. By Steven 15 RACY VIEWS AND COMMENTS. 3 BOOKS, DRAWINGS, & PAPERS, By Richard Aldington. Serial Story := WOMEN WHO DID AND WHO Do YET. By G. W. 16 FRANCE TO-DAY : A GROUP OF THINKERS. By Edgar A. Mowrer. THE HORSES OF DIOMEDES. By Remy de Gourmont. Aldington. 8 (Ch. 18). The Juggler. LE THEATRE DU VIEUX COLOM. HIER. By H. S. C. 18 THE CUBIST ROOM. By Wynd- ham Lewis. POEMS. By F. S. Flint. 14 CORRESPONDENCE. In The Egoist (April 1918), critic May Sinclair was the first to apply the term "stream of consciousness" in a literary context, discussing Richardson's stylistic innovations. THE concepts with which one age will preoccupy itself, and in which it will invest its surplus emotional heat have shown themselves to be so essentially casual as to be now a matter for mirth rather than wonder with its successors. The subject of an age's Master Passion round which its interest rages will be anything accidental and contingent which will serve : stand the heat, that is, and last out until enthusiasm tires. The amount of genuine enthusiasm which Athanasius, Arius and their followers were able to cull from the numerical prob- lems in the concept of the Trinity was-incredible though it may seem-equal to that which this age culls from the figures of the football scores. The Crusaders who were so concerned about the posses- sion of the Tomb of Christ looked forward to finding as much diversion and profit as a Home Ruler expects to get from the possession of a Parliament on Dublin Green. It is only from a distance that these dead dogs look so determinedly dead. Nearer to, one would swear the body had stirred; and we who are so near to an age when the mere mention of " Uni- versal Law " would produce lyrical intoxication, " All's love, All's law," a very swoon of security, do not purpose here to break in upon the belated obse- quies of that dead or dying concept. As the sport of the ribald and the mockers " Universal law " is the perquisite of the youth of 1950, not of 1915, And we will not here trespass on the future. The reference in the title of this article is limited to statutory law, a prosaic and earth-bound branch which not even Apollo himself could have strung to the lyrical note, and it must be allowed that however excellent a run " Universal Law " as a symbol and idealised concept may have been accorded by a gene- ration now settled in obesity, its society representa- tive, so to speak, with which we are here concerned, has never been held in any too high esteem. The increase in its bulk and scope of application, which oddly enough, grows rapidly alongside something called the " Liberty of the people " have proved matters for complexity even when they have not created indignation and alarm. Visions of those not the least penetrating, have seen in the steady advance of the statutory law a devastating plague in which the parchment of the politicias has seemed as capable of devouring the spirit of the people as a swarm of locusts devouring green grass. Proudhon writing in 1850 on the subject says : " Laws and ordinances fall like hail on the poor populace. After a while the political soil will be covered with a layer of paper, and all the geologists will have to do will be to list it, under the name of papyraccons formation, among the epochs of the earth's history. The Convention, in three years one month and four days, issued eleven thousand six hundred laws and decrees; the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies had produced hardly less; the empire and the later governments have wrought as industriously. At present the " Bulletin des Lois ' contains, they say, more than fifty thousand; if our representatives did their duty this enormous figure would soon be doubled. Do you believe that the populace, or the government itself, can keep its sanity in this labyrinth?" And yet, while no one would care to dispute these facts or deny they had significance, it is the liber- tarian interpretation of them which provides the clue T. Byington. 6 VIOLET HUNT. By Richard 1 LIBERTY, LAW, AND DEMOCRACY.

Conclusion: Other Modernist Writers

Conclusion Other Modernist Writers Known for Stream of Consciousness:

• James Joyce, in Ulysses (1922).
• Italo Svevo, in La coscienza di Zeno (1923).
• Virginia Woolf, in Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927).
• William Faulkner, in The Sound and the Fury (1928). According to Randell Stevenson, however, the more appropriate term for Virginia Woolf's style is interior monologue rather than stream of consciousness, since subjective experience in her writing is recorded in a more structured way, as seen in The Waves.

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