stream of consciousness novel ANSHU.pptx

Stream of consciousness narration plays a specific literary role in allowing writers to create a very specific narrative experience for readers. It is a way of bringing readers as close as possible to a character's mental state.

1. 1 DR. ANSHU RAJ PUROHIT Professor Department of English The stream-of-consciousness novel

2. Stream of Consciousness Meaning There are many ways for narrators to convey the thoughts and experiences of characters. One of these options is called stream of consciousness. Narrators provide readers with access to a character's thoughts by simply narrating all of them. A more useful stream of consciousness literary definition would specify that writers who employ this technique use repetition, unusual syntax and punctuation, sensory observations, characters' memories, and other forms of free association in their writing. 2

3. 3 History The term ''stream of consciousness'' was first coined in 1890 by psychologist William James in a book called  The Principles of Psychology . James was not talking about literature, though the term is almost exclusively used in literary circles nowadays. James was interested in describing how people actually experience consciousness as a continuous ''stream'' of moments. Some of those moments, sensations, and emotions could make a lasting impact, while others would come and go. After that the term was applied to a style of writing that sought to mimic the chaotic yet streamlined experience of human consciousness.

4. 4 Significance of Stream of Consciousness Narration Stream of consciousness narration plays a specific literary role in allowing writers to create a very specific narrative experience for readers. It is a way of bringing readers as close as possible to a character's mental state. Sometimes, stream of consciousness writing is confusing for readers to parse, as there are many seemingly random jumps in the subject matter.

5. 5 Significance Stream of consciousness was particularly popular among the Modernist writers, who wanted to experiment with how to express individual human experiences through literature. They were interested in breaking with convention and so they developed new ways of expressing what characters were feeling and thinking. Other ways that authors can convey characters' thoughts and emotions, whether they are using stream of consciousness writing or not, include describing characters' actions and facial expressions or paraphrasing their thoughts.

6. 6 Examples Although it is often discussed as an important form of literature, stream of consciousness has never been a particularly common writing style. Most stream of consciousness examples were written in the last hundred or so years, and some writers are still using this technique today. In more traditional prose, authors pare down their characters' thoughts and experiences to convey only a small subset of information to readers. Usually , that information contributes to the plot or characterization in a fairly narrow sense. Stream of consciousness turns this idea on its head, losing the distinctions between supposedly important and unimportant information. When readers get to experience a character's entire consciousness simultaneously, the point of the work becomes that character's experiences and personhood rather than the advancement of a linear plot.

7. 7 James Joyce's Stream of Consciousness By far the most famous example of stream of consciousness writing is the experimental novel "Ulysses" by James Joyce. Joyce was an Irish writer who was one of the leading figures in the Modernist movement. For James Joyce, stream of consciousness was a powerful way to discuss the human condition in a way that had not really been attempted before .   Ulysses  takes place on a single day in Dublin: June 16th, 1904. It focuses primarily on the life of a man named Leopold Bloom and it also echoes the plot of Homer's  Odyssey , the famous ancient Greek epic. The following passage is an example from  Ulysses  that shows how Joyce used stream of consciousness writing.

8. 8 Books Although   Ulysses  is the most famous, there are several other stream of consciousness books that have heavily influenced the literary landscape. Not all stream of consciousness books use the style quite as dramatically as Joyce did, but they present characters' experiences as a virtually continuous stream of ideas, sensations, and emotions. Ulysses  is widely considered to be one of the most challenging novels ever written, largely because of its unusual prose style.

9. 9