Stream of consciousness (narrative mode)

Stream of consciousness (English stream of consciousness, often mistakenly equated with the inner monologue ) referred to in the literature, a narrative technique that reproduces the contents of consciousness of one or more figures in a random sequence. It was invented by Leo Tolstoy for his novel Anna Karenina. Well-known examples include Ulysses by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf's The Waves.

Definition

The term " stream of consciousness " describes a literary method. Such a text trying the perceptions, thoughts, feelings and reflections of a narrative character subjectively reproduce as they flow into human consciousness. The development of this method was done based on the research of psychological facts by William James, who was in the area of ​​psychology which goes back to Charles S. Peirce idea of ​​a continuously running " stream of consciousness " had

The stream of consciousness has also been called the " radicalization personal narrative " because even there the inner world of the figure is presented without comment, and the narrator is to withdraw from the event.

Technology

The narrative technique of stream of consciousness is the direct persons with speech syntactic independence, use of the present tense than normal tense and the indicative mood than Normal mode. To designate the thinking figure, the first person is used, so it will be told from the first-person perspective.

The general term for the communication of unspoken thoughts of the characters in the form of direct speech is " internal monologue ". The term " stream of consciousness " is very mixed used and partially used as a synonym for inner monologue.

The vital difference of the stream of consciousness to simple personal direct speech form style and context: There is a lack Verba credendi and quotation marks, because " principle is, itself, speak to let the figure consciousness ': perceptions, feelings, associations of all kinds, memories, reflections, and mere sound sequences without explicit notice or intervention of a narrator to record '. "

Matters that are the figure of course, perhaps because it is currently executing are not known and have to be reconstructed by the reader.

The narrator report has only the function to situate the figure and her inner monologue in the outside world, thus creating a narrative framework that could not produce the figure. But external events is important only as an incentive and triggers internal processes.

Another stylistic feature is the recess of information by psychological and syntactic reduction: Often fall from nouns, personal pronouns or finite verb form, sometimes articles, prepositions and conjunctions.

Also interlock contents of consciousness and impulses associated freely, as they just fall into consciousness. They are not necessarily linearly ordered chronologically.

Development

The literary technique of stream of consciousness was invented by Leo Tolstoy for his 1877/78 published novel Anna Karenina: In Chapter XXIX of the seventh part he records the thoughts of his protagonist during a ride to the station, where they will commit suicide, without distinction on whether it is is pondering her seemingly hopeless situation, observations from the window of the carriage or advertising texts in the Moscow show windows. The term " stream of consciousness " was first appearing by the American psychologist William James in his 1890 masterpiece "The principles of psychology" (New York: H. Holt and Company ) was used. He described the concept of the novel " Les lauriers sont coupés " by the French writer Edouard Dujardin (1888 ersch ). This term refers not only to the mere verbal process, but also sensual observed, for example, visual, perceptions.

The term " stream of consciousness " also found in a review of the author's May Sinclair (1863-1946) use to characterize the work " Pilgrimage " by Dorothy Richardson ( 1873-1957 ).

The technique of stream of consciousness was particularly well received in English and American modernism, as a counter- movement established itself as literary realism and naturalism in the late 19th century. The Surrealists were doing something very similar, starting from Europe.

In the German -speaking area of this stylistic device was " Lieutenant Gustl " and " Fräulein Else " first used by Arthur Schnitzler in his novels consistently.

The stream of consciousness was also replicated in the Asian region. He joined after 1979 with the political opening and detachment of the communist- socialist ideology in China. A typical example is "The Eye of the Night" by Wang Meng.

The modern films and experimental films remained not unaffected, mostly outside the mainstream.

Well-known novels in the style of stream of consciousness

Famous for the use of this technique include the novels:

• Knut Hamsun: Hunger (1890)
• James Joyce: Ulysses ( 1921)
• Alfred Doblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz ( 1929)
• William Faulkner: Sound and the Fury (1929 )
• Edlef Köppen: army report (1930 )
• Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and The Waves ( The Waves ) ( 1931)
• Wolfgang Koeppen: Pigeons in the grass (1951) and The Hothouse (1953 )
• Alfred Andersch: Zanzibar or the last reason (1957 )
• Arno Schmidt: KAFF also Mare Crisium (1960 )
• Luis Martín -Santos: Tiempo de Silencio (1962 )
• Rolf Dieter Brinkmann: No one knows more (1968 )
• Caroline Janice Cherryh: Pell's Star (1982 )

The stream of consciousness may bear different characteristic features in each author. In James Joyce there are for example:

• Shorthand syntax
• Personal idiom
• Arbitrary word formations
• Onomatopoeia
• Language games