Stream Of Consciousness

To The Light HouseBy

Virginia Woolf

Definition

• Stream of Consciousness is a literary technique which was pioneered by Dorthy Richardson, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce. Stream of consciousness is characterized by a flow of thoughts and images, which may not always appear to have a coherent structure or cohesion. The plot line may weave in and out of time and place, carrying the reader through the life span of a character or further along a timeline to incorporate the lives (and thoughts) of characters from other time periods.

Death of the author

Features

• Use of informal, colloquial language • Focalization on inner thoughts and feelings.• No first-person but figural narrative mode.• The flow of thoughts is represented by means of long-winding, interconnected sentences.

Stream of consciousness

The breaking of Grammatical rules. Punctuation is neglected.

Interior Monologue

• A stylized way of thinking out loud. (Technically: thinking ‘on the page’.)• Unlike stream-of-consciousness, an interior monologue can be

integrated into a third-person narrative. The point of view of character’s thoughts are woven into authorial description, using their own language.

• This is the essential difference between interior monologue and straight narrative : :

• Narrative = the narrator talking ( ‘the narrator’ – that made-up character who sounds like the author.

• Interior Monologue = a character talking/thinking, using words ,specific to that character, making assumptions, mistaken judgments, .

Stream of Consciousness

• Another stylized way of thinking out loud.• The term ‘stream of consciousness’ is very similar to

interior monologue – and used interchangeably by some – but this refers more specifically to a first person narrative which mimics the jumble of thoughts, emotions and memories passing through a character’s mind. (Interior monologue is not necessarily written in first person.)

• Stream of consciousness tends to be less ordered than interior monologue. Consciousness has no beginning and no end – thoughts flit quite randomly from one thing to another.

The Window Chapter 1

• “Had there been an axe handy, a poker, or any weapon that would have gashed a hole in his father’s breast and killed him, there and then, James would have seized it. Such were the extremes of emotion that Mr Ramsay excited in his children’s breasts by his mere presence; standing, as now, lean as a knife, narrow as the blade of one, grinning sarcastically, not only with the pleasure of disillusioning his son and casting ridicule upon his wife, who was ten thousand times better in every way than he was (James thought)”

No first-person but figural narrative mode.

“Who was ten thousand times better in every way than he was (James thought)”

• “there and then, James would have seized it.”

The Window Chapter 1

• “Yes, he did say disagreeable things, Mrs. Ramsay admitted; it was odious of him to rub this in, and make• James still more disappointed; but at the same time,

she would not let them laugh at him. ‘The atheist’, they

• called him; ‘the little atheist’, Rose mocked him; Prue mocked him; Andrew, Jasper, Roger mocked him;• even old Badger without a tooth in his head

• Had “bit him

Stream of consciousess

• Virginia Woolf’s distinguishing technical features of stream of consciousness are examined in relation to devices used by many contemporary write

• stream of consciousness, and monologue interieur" have been employed, but reflect the "author’s attitude toward the reality of the world he represents."

Stream of consciousness

• Woolf’s uniqueness begins with an "attempt to render the flow and the play of consciousness adrift in the current of changing impressions."

• Woolf’s technique is achieved through "[t]he design of a close approach to objective reality by means of numerous subjective impressions received by various individuals (and at various times)is important in the modern technique."

•

Stream of consciousness

• " Woolf’s use of the "multipersonal representation of consciousness" is unique through its combination with "treatment of time.“

• This relation is not new to modern literature; however, narration is not devoted to an external occurrence, rather internal processes.

Stream of consciousness• This relation is not new to modern literature; however, narration is

not devoted to an external occurrence, rather internal processes.

• "In Virginia Woolf’s case the external events have lost their hegemony, they serve to release and interpret inner events, whereas before her time… inner movements preponderantly function to prepare and motivate significant external happenings."

Stream of consciousness

• Although there is no temporal relation between external framing and internal impressions, each share a common element.

• The important aspect to remember regarding the uniqueness of Woolf’s representation of consciousness is that "insignificant external occurrence releases ideas and chains of ideas which cut loose from the present of the external occurrence and range freely through the depths of time"

Stream of consciousness

• Instead, the consciousness is constantly changing due to present impressions integrating with past experiences (68-71).

• Woolf’s characters seem to be constantly reminded of the past through their present experiences.

Stream of consciousess

• Therefore, the term stream of consciousness may be too general when describing Woolf’s work.

• Woolf’s probing into the human consciousness in TTL is not so simplistic that it can be attributed to any particular narrative technique.

Stream of consciousness

• What really distinguishes her novel is the aesthetic effect of her exploration of the minds of her characters.

• Only an artist of Woolf’s stature can present the mental worlds of her characters with an unprecedented depth and intensity.

Stream of consciousness

• By virtue of her depth and intensity, Woolf creates a novel with an unconventional "plot", In fact, the imaginative power of her language tunnelling the minds of her characters translates her novel to the level of poetry.

Stream of consciousness

• Reading and writing about the book was a huge undertaking (and challenge). I was struck by the many literary techniques, but did not comprehend – and would not have necessarily – picked out all of the aspects as a recreational reader (should be left to academics who actually analyse the language, phrases and expressions individually). Still, one thing that I did not include in the below points was on Lily and James (how, at the end of the novel, they develop more balanced and holistic impressions of Mrs and Mr Ramsay respectively, and reinforces the point about competing perspectives).

Stream of consciousness

• “To The Lighthouse” and the use of the stream of consciousness technique.

• The use of the stream of consciousness technique is a defining literary aspect of “To The Lighthouse”, along with the use of flashbacks-recollections, as well as the changing perspective and narrative voice from character to character.

Stream of consciousness

• . The last book I read which used the stream of consciousness narrative style was William Faulkner’s “The Sound And The Fury”; and like the present text, the narrative style allows for more in-depth character understanding (without the bias from a third-person perspective), and enriches the relationships between the members.

Stream of consciousness

• The broadest conjunction of the narrative world with the sub-atomic is epistemological. In the limited perspective of the internal narrator, literature had already a principle of limited knowledge. The stream-of-consciousness novel, investing itself fully in the dynamic mind of the narrator, denies still more absolutely the possibility of absolute knowledge and sees the world change under observation. In To the Lighthouse, where questions of perception, perspective, and knowledge press, the limits and uncertainties are sometimes poignant. Of