Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel

The following notes are based on Robert  Humphrey's book Stream of Consciousness  in  the
Modern Novel (1954).

Stream of consciousness is one of the delusive terms. It is used as vaguely as " romanticism",
"symbolism", "surrealism". It was first used and coined by William James as a psychological term
to refer to the memories, thoughts, and feelings which exist outside the primary consciousness .
These memories and thoughts present themselves  as a "flow", or "stream" and not as a chain".
As a psychological term, consciousness has two levels; "speech level" and the " pre-speech
level". The speech level has a verbal or other formal communication basis which is rationally
controlled. The pre-speech level, the one which concerns us here, has no such basis. In other
words, the pre -speech levels of consciousness are not censored, rationally controlled, or
logically ordered. It deals with inchoate ideas than rational verbalization with those levels on the
margin of attention.
The stream of consciousness fiction is a type of fiction in which the basic emphasis is placed on
exploration of the pre-speech levels of consciousness for the purpose , primarily , of revealing
the psychic being of the characters. Hence, consciousness must not be confused with
"intelligence " or memory. Good examples of stream of consciousness fiction : Marcel Proust's A
La Recherché de Tim's Purdu; James Joyce's Ulysses"; Virginia Wolfe's Mrs. Dalloway , To the
Lighthouse; William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.

Stream of consciousness literature is concerned with the mental and spiritual experience, both
the "what ness" and the "howness" of it. The whatness includes the categories of mental
experiences: sensations,memories,m imaginations , conceptions, intuitions. The howness 
includes the symbolizations, the feelings, and the process of association.

Four techniques at least are used to present the stream of consciousness :

Direct interior monologue
Indirect interior monologue
Omniscient description
Soliloquy

Perhaps the most famous and skillful direct interior monologue is that which comprises the last
forty- five pages of Joyce's Ulysses . Molly Bloom lying in the bed in a drowsy state of mind. The
elements of incoherence and fluidity are emphasized by the complete absence of punctuation.

The direct interior monologue is presented without authorial intrusion, no assumed listener. The
character is drowsy, or obsessed and supposedly alone.
The indirect interior monologue : the author intrudes as guide or commentator . The author
assumes a position in the mind of his character.

The problem of form for the stream- of-consciousness novelist is the problem of how order is
imposed upon disorder. The modern novelists follow different patterns: the use of motifs, the
use of mythical patterns, previously established literary patterns, the use of symbolic structures,
musical structure, and the unities ( time and place ).

An epiphany is a sudden spiritual revelation or manifestation which the character experiences

usually at a moment of crisis. Such a spiritual breakthrough could be triggered by something as
insignificant as a sound or a gesture.

The " Bildungsroman " is the novel of development which traces the growth of a protagonist
from childhood through later conflict.

The "Kunstlerroman"- the novel that traces the growth, specifically, of an artist and the artistic
conscience as it attempts to come to terms with the world.