This document discusses the stream of consciousness technique in modern literature. It provides examples from works by T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. Stream of consciousness captures a character's thought process through incorporating sensory impressions and rough grammar. It allows readers to experience a character's thoughts as they unfold in a non-linear way. Modernist writers used this technique to reflect a more authentic view of human experience.

1. Name : Asari Bhavyang .M
Roll no :-3
Enrollment No:-3069206420200002
Course:-M.A (English)Sem2
Subject:-History of English Literature – From
1900 to 2000
Topic:- Stream of consciousness ?
Teacher Name :- Dilip Barad sir
Batch :- 2021-2023
Email :- asaribhavyang7874@gmail.com
Department:- Department of English

2. Stream of consciousness :-
● Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing
that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's
extended thought process, often by incorporating sensory
impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax, and rough
grammar.
● Stream of consciousness writing allows readers to “listen in”
on a character's thoughts. The technique often involves the
use of language in unconventional ways in an attempt to
replicate the complicated pathways that thoughts take as
they unfold and move through the mind.

3. What Makes Stream of Consciousness Different?
● Syntax and grammar
● Association
● Repetition
● Plot structure
1, Syntax and grammar :-
● Stream of consciousness writing does not usually
follow ordinary rules of grammar and word order. This
is because thoughts are often not fully formed, or they
change course in the middle and become "run-on
sentences," or they are interrupted by another thought.

4. 2.Association
● Stream of consciousness also makes use of associative thought. In
this style of writing, writers transition between ideas using loose
connections that are often based on a character's personal
experiences and memories.
● The idea is that this technique helps writers convey the experience of
human thought more accurately than they could by using a series of
ideas connected with clear, logical transitions.
● Associative thought can seem "random" as it leaps from one thing to
the next, with the help of only ambiguous or seemingly nonexistent
connections, even as it can also feel similar to the actual random
leaps that are a part of people's everyday thoughts.

5. 3.Repetition
Writers might use repetition to indicate that the character keeps
coming back to, or is fixating on, a certain thought or sensory
impression. Repeated words and phrases can act as a sign posts,
pointing readers towards significant themes and motifs.
4. Plot structure :-
Some writers may also choose to arrange events out of chronological order, or to
give readers details about the past through a character’s memories. In The Sound
and the Fury, William Faulkner conveys many important events and details
through memories that arise as part of his different characters’ streams of
consciousness.

6. Stream of Consciousness in The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot
Modernist poet TS Eliot uses stream of consciousness techniques in his famous
poem, "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock.
‘I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me’
("The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock By T. S. Eliot | Poetry Magazine". Poetry Magazine,
2021, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-
alfred-prufrock.)

7. James Joyce (1882-1941), and stream of consciousness :-
● A writer from Ireland wrote his masterpiece “Ulysses” which serves as a
landmark in the modernist literature. He is the earliest and the best known
practitioners of stream of consciousness. This study would focus on two of
Joyce’s novels which epitomize his signature stream of consciousness prose
style, Portrait of artist as a young man’ which is also an autobiographical
novel and ‘Ulysses’.
● For Joyce, his fiction is marked by moments of intense realization when his
characters suddenly discover truths about themselves and are given moments of
intense insight.

8. Virginia woolf and stream of consciousness :-
● Virginia woolf is considered one of the prominent writers who is
Recognized as the most important feminist writer of all time, used the
stream-of-consciousness technique to great significance in her works.
● She is a writer who is known for her finest treatment of problems of love
and loneliness. Her novels To the lighthouse will be dealt with in this
study. For Woolf, on the other hand, her fiction features "moments of
importance," which she defined as follows: Examine for a moment an
ordinary mind on ordinary day. The mind receives myriad impressions-
trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel.
From all sides they came, an incessant shower of innumerable atoms;
and as they fall, as they shape themselves into the life.
Shodh.Inflibnet.Ac.In, 2021, http://shodh.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/4117/2/02_introduction.pdf.)

9. The importance of stream of consciousness technique in
modern literature:-
● The role of stream of consciousness in literature is
typically as a character study. It is a purposeful innovation
in the modern prose style .
● The modernist writers such as Woolf and her
contemporaries wanted their work to reflect life in its
complete authenticity mirroring the universal human
experience. Hence this study would try to locate how far
these novelists have succeeded in achieving it.

10. Reference :-
● Shodh.Inflibnet.Ac.In, 2021,
http://shodh.inflibnet.ac.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/411
7/2/02_introduction.pdf.
● "Stream Of Consciousness - Definition And Examples |
Litcharts". Litcharts, 2021, https://www.litcharts.com/literary-
devices-and-terms/stream-of-consciousness.
● "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock By T. S. Eliot | Poetry
Magazine". Poetry Magazine, 2021,
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/4421
2/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock.