Modernism Essay
By Julia A. Keirns
The modernist movement in the arts prompted a focus on form and experimentation, known as the use of “stream of consciousness.” The word “stream” gives us the idea of a constant flow of thought. A person’s thoughts and conscious reactions to life events, perceived as a continuous flow is the best definition of this term. It was introduced by William James in his “Principles of Psychology” in 1890 (Modernism, 2020).
Stop and think of every thought you have in a single minute. If you are anything like me, your thoughts can travel from one idea to another in a millisecond, and once a thought is gone the chances of getting it back are slim. This is the idea behind the term “stream of consciousness.” Writers would try to express this constant flow of words, thoughts and ideas in their writing. This literary style in which a character’s thoughts, feelings and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue is best expressed by writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Wolf and Marcel Proust.
Stream of consciousness is a method of narration that describes the happenings in the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. Another appropriate term for this is interior monologue, where the thought processes of the character are portrayed in the form of monologue. The stream of consciousness style of writing is marked by the sudden rise of thoughts and a lack of punctuation. An example would be a flow of thought that takes a character back to their past, or when a character voices their internal feelings to themselves in their mind, which lets the readers know what the character is thinking and feeling. Sometimes these are introduced by clauses like “he thought” or “he wondered” (Stream, 2018).
This stream of consciousness style of writing was developed by a group of writers at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a way to give the readers the impression of actually being inside the minds of the characters. This sheds much light on the plot and motivation of the story (Stream, 2018). It gives the readers an inside look so to speak. This style of writing lets the reader feel the emotions of the character. A person’s mind contains a second by second constant flow of thoughts, feelings, sounds, images and words. All day long a person’s consciousness is flowing. It is a tangled mess of material, multilayered waves of sensations, and collisions of ideas (School, 2016).
Dozens of thoughts and feelings are swirling around in our minds at any given second and all we can do is grab one at a time that maybe catches our attention to focus on for a minute or possibly to discuss verbally. This is why writers keep notebooks by their bed or on their person at all times, myself included. The constant flow guarantees that once a thought or idea is gone it is probably actually gone for good. I don’t know how many times I have thought of something and wished I would have written it down (School, 2016).
A lot of literature fails to truly portray the actual thoughts and feelings of the characters, but this literary style makes it easier. It is difficult to open up the mind and understand what is going through it but some writers have mastered it. We have to pull out from our stream of consciousness the important parts to dwell on. Some of it is not needed, but a lot of it is or it wouldn’t be there in the first place. We have received tons of bits of information into our mind and to think that only a tiny bit of it ever gets pulled out and processed is mind boggling.
Every style of writing and literature is important, and mastering the stream of consciousness style is important for a writer. Delving into the minds of the characters can help the writer move the story along. Trying to figure out why a character does something helps the plot. Any writer who can master this technique has a good start on understanding their characters.
Works Cited
“Stream of Consciousness – Examples and Definition.” Literary Devices, 13 Jan. 2018, http://literarydevices.net/stream-of-consciousness/
Modernism, 2020. https://egcc.instructure.com/courses/2987/assignments/47844?module_item_id=143561
The School of Life – What is the Stream of Consciousness? 7 Sept. 2016. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu9L5zQ4g0Q