Concetti Chiave
- The stream of consciousness technique in literature replaces the omniscient narrator with the characters' feelings and memories.
- James Joyce popularized the stream of consciousness, especially in his novel Ulysses, where ideas are presented without rational order.
- This technique aims to mirror the continuous flow of human thought, blending past, present, and future.
- Joyce's method uses short sentences, abrupt images, musical word quality, and narrative techniques like flashbacks and story within a story.
- The stream of consciousness is expressed through direct and indirect interior monologues, with the latter being more descriptive and easier to read.
Indice
Innovations in post-Victorian Fiction
The major innovations breaking away from Victorian Age fiction were the concepts of duration and the stream of consciousness technique, where the omniscient narrator disappeared and was replaced by the direct or indirect presentation of characters through their feelings and memories.The stream of consciousness became particularly famous through the novels of James Joyce.
In Ulysses, ideas and images are assembled and presented without rational order.
The stream of consciousness aims to reproduce the natural flow of human thought, often merging past, present, and future.
Features of the stream of consciousness technique
Joyce's stream of consciousness style is characterized by linguistic and psychological devices, including:- Short, compressed sentences, often lacking a main verb and subject.
- Event descriptions interrupted by comments or thoughts.
- Abrupt memories or images from a character’s past.
- Questions formulated inside the character’s mind.
- Musical quality of words (assonance, alliteration).
- Techniques like flashbacks, fade-outs, and slow-ups.
- Stories within stories.
- Use of similes and metaphors.
Stream of consciousness vs. interior monologue
The stream of consciousness refers to the mental phenomenon itself, while the interior monologue is the literary device used to translate this phenomenon into words.
There are two types:
- Direct interior monologue: direct presentation of a character’s stream of consciousness without the author’s or narrator’s intervention.
- Indirect interior monologue: indirect presentation through the voice of an anonymous third-person narrator. This type is easier to read, often including descriptive passages or explanations.
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