Stream of Consciousness

Stream of Consciousness, a development of realism, influenced by modern psychological knowledge, is a method of the contemporary novel used to depict the mental and emotional reactions of characters to external events, rather than the events themselves. As opposed to the usages of conventional plot structure, description, and characterization, the action is presented in terms of images and attitudes within the mind of one or more figures, often to get at the psychic nature of the characters at a level distinct from that of their expression of ordered, verbalized thought. The term was coined by William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890) for psychologists but has long been applied to literature along with Edouard Dujardin's term, “interior monologue.” Poe, especially in such a story as The Tell‐Tale Heart, and Melville and Henry James are considered to be among the American predecessors of the technique, even if Poe and James did not specifically practice it. Dujardin's Les Lauriers sont coupés (1887) and Joyce's Ulysses (1922) are considered the real forerunners and influences. After the impact of Joyce's work, the technique became pervasive and American novelists who have used it include Conrad Aiken, Sherwood Anderson, Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, Faulkner, Hemingway, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, W.C. Williams, and Thomas Wolfe. In Strange Interlude, O'Neill transferred this approach to the theater by the use of soliloquies and asides.