Stream of consciousness

How it is used

Associated with Modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf (Mrs Dalloway), James Joyce (Ulysses) and William Faulkner. The phrase was first used by psychologist William James in 1890. In Turkish literature, Oğuz Atay's Tutunamayanlar is a well-known example.

Example sentences

1. The last chapter is written entirely in stream of consciousness, with almost no punctuation.

2. Woolf uses stream of consciousness to move between the minds of different characters.

Common collocations

• stream-of-consciousness technique
• stream-of-consciousness novel
• written in stream of consciousness
• interior monologue

Related terms

• ModernismAn early twentieth-century movement that broke with traditional forms and experimented with new ways of writing, such as fragmentation, multiple viewpoints and stream of consciousness.
• narrativeA story or account of connected events, and the way it is told; also used as an adjective for anything that tells a story.
• point of viewThe position from which a story is told, which decides whose eyes we see events through and how much we learn, for example first-person or third-person.
• monologueA long speech by one character, either spoken to other characters who listen or to the audience, in a play, film or story.

More terms: Narration and Point of View

• narrator
• first-person narrator
• omniscient narrator
• unreliable narrator