The Modern Novel

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Stream of consciousness

Stream of consciousness is a form of narration where the author gives a character’s point of view, by narrating this character’s thoughts in an interior monologue. The term originally came from William James in his work on psychology to describe the continuous flow of thought in the conscious, waking mind but it was May Sinclair who first used it, in her review of Dorothy Richardson‘s Pilgrimage. James Joyce claimed that the first use of it was by Edouard Dujardin‘s Les lauriers sont coupés, though the technique was used to some degree in earlier novels, going back to the Tale of the Genji. Modern authors to use it include Dorothy Richardson, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner and many, many others.

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Stream of consciousness (narrative mode)
Stream of Consciousness
Stream of Consciousness