Stream of consciousness writing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a literary technique which seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. Stream-of-consciousness writing is strongly associated with the modernist movement. Its introduction in the literary context, transferred from psychology, is attributed to May Sinclair, but it is most famous for its use by James Joyce.
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[edit] Style classification
Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative (and at times dissociative) leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings. Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are distinguished from dramatic monologue, where the speaker is addressing an audience or a third person, and is used chiefly in poetry or drama. In stream of consciousness, the speaker's thought processes are more often depicted as overheard (or addressed to oneself) and is primarily a fictional device. The term was first introduced to the field of literary studies from that of psychology by philosopher and psychologist William James, brother of the influential writer Henry James.
[edit] Notable examples
The earliest precedent of any literary work using this technique is possibly Ovid's Metamorphoses in ancient Rome. Sir Thomas Browne's discourse The Garden of Cyrus (1658,) with its rapid, unconnected association of objects, geometrical shapes and numerology, may be considered one of the earliest examples of stream of consciousness writing. Some of the works of Gyula Krúdy (The Adventures of Sindbad) also employ a technique that can be considered the forerunner of stream of consciousness. Further examples of the development of this style are The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne, (1760), The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe (1837/1838) and Édouard Dujardin's Les Lauriers sont coupés (1888). Tolstoy used a similar stream-of-consciousness technique in Anna Karenina (1877) in the portions leading to the climax; another early example is Arthur Schnitzler's 1900 short story Leutnant Gustl, and the false document making up the bulk of Arthur Machen's "The White People" (1904).
Stream of consciousness writing gained rapid prominence in the twentieth century, particularly through the writings of Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and William Faulkner.
Several notable works employing stream of consciousness are:
- Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song
- Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
- Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage (1915-28)
- James Joyce's Ulysses (in particular Molly Bloom's soliloquy)
- Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and The Waves
- William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying
- Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea's Illuminatus!
- William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness
- Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren
- Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn
- Jerzy Andrzejewski's Gates to Paradise
- A.B. Yehoshua's A Late Divorce
- Will Christopher Baer's Phineas Poe Trilogy (Seen in all of Kiss Me, Judas and Hell's Half Acre and parts of Penny Dreadful)
- Song of Solomon
- Jack Kerouac's On the Road
- Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"
- Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
- Oğuz Atay's Tutunamayanlar (The Disconnected)
- R.E.M.'s It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) off the album Document
[edit] Multi-media
The technique is not specifically confined to literary sources, and has been used either separately or in combination with other media.
[edit] Cinema and sketch comedy
- The British comedy troupe Monty Python used the technique in their sketches. The technique capitalizes on the nonsensical absurdist humour that Python is famous for. The technique also features in the animated shorts created by Terry Gilliam for the show, which, similarly, use stream of consciousness as means to showcase absurdist humour. An example of this within their work is the famous opening scene of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which conversation progresses from a discussion about the master of the castle to African swallows, all due to the characters who speak their thoughts, nonsensical though they may be. Another example is the Bloody Weather sketch.
- Terrence Malick is notable for using a steam of consciousness voice over for one or several of his characters in all of his four films to date. His characters usually express thoughts of existentialism and are deeply rooted in philosophical matters.
[edit] Television
The NBC sitcom Scrubs is presented with the protagonist’s thoughts heard by the viewer as a stream-of-consciousness voiceover playing the role of narration; it often goes off on seemingly random tangents—much as any person’s thoughts tend to wander if not focused on something specific. The viewer also frequently sees the protagonist’s imagination at work.
[edit] World Wide Web
One example of a website that uses the technique is Cognitec/3rd Force, which is the progressive work of an anonymous author known only as " HC." The site began in the mid 1990s as a series of bizarre and sardonic original passages which was "spoofed" to look like prominent web portals of the early Dot com boom. For example, the now defunct "Pathfinder" site (now simply the Time Inc. portal [1]) was parodied as "Crapfinder," the "New York Times" became the "New Times York."
Because of the site's extensive use of the literary method, transitory and seemingly-unrelated themes became connected through hyperlinks. These seemed to further reflect the free-flowing thought process of the strangely prolific author. It was later revealed that much of the content consisted of excerpts from the metafictional novel MFU (ISBN 188640402X) [2]. The novel's desultory narrative structure and breadth of material was sufficient for creating years worth of related material in the form of multiple parodies, faux news reports, and essays, as well as providing prospective readers of the novel an opportunity to "sample" the book. Most of the novel was subsequently released as either readable or searchable on-line [3].
[edit] Hip-hop music
In the realm of audio, hip hop artist Ghostface Killah is well known for his stream of consciousness rapping, a style largely his own that utilizes complicated and constantly shifting subject matter to illustrate his mindset and viewpoint. Also prominent in hip-hop for their stream-of-consciousness style is anticon. rapper Doseone (born Adam Drucker). Canadian rapper Buck 65 has also been known to employ the technique eg. "sexy girl, air freshener, snacks in the pin wheel" -Wicked And Wierd.
[edit] Trivia
- The technique has been parodied, for example by David Lodge in the final chapter of The British Museum Is Falling Down.
