Stream of Consciousness

By prof.Abdelhamid Fouda 

The phrase

“Stream of Consciousness”

 was coined by William James to describe the flow of thoughts of the waking mind. It is a person's thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow. In literature it is a literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue. The related phrase “interior monologue” is used to describe the inner movement of consciousness in a character’s mind. The use of devices of the stream of consciousness and the interior monologue marks a revolution in the form of the novel because through these devices the author can represent the flux of a character’s thoughts, impressions, and emotions and reminiscences (recollections), often without any logical sequence.