Stream of consciousness
Encyclopedia
In literary criticism
, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue
, or in connection to his or her actions.
Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue
and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose
difficult to follow. Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are distinguished from dramatic monologue
, where the speaker is addressing an audience or a third person
, which is used chiefly in poetry
or drama
. In stream of consciousness, the speaker's thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself); it is primarily a fictional device. The term was introduced to the field of literary studies from that of psychology
, where it was coined by philosopher and psychologist
William James
.
Stream of consciousness is the continuous flow of sense‐perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind or a literary method of representing a blending of mental processes in fiction
al characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. The term is often used as a synonym for interior monologue, but they can also be distinguished, in two ways. In the first (psychological) sense, the stream of consciousness is the subject‐matter while interior monologue is the technique for presenting it; thus Marcel Proust
's novel A la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27) is about the stream of consciousness, especially the connection between sense‐impressions and memory, but it does not actually use interior monologue. In the second (literary) sense, stream of consciousness is a special style of interior monologue: while an interior monologue always presents a character's thoughts ‘directly’, without the apparent intervention of a summarizing and selecting narrator, it does not necessarily mingle them with impressions and perceptions, nor does it necessarily violate the norms of grammar
, syntax
, and logic
; but the stream‐of‐consciousness technique also does one or both of these things. An important device of modernist fiction and its later imitators, the technique was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson
in Pilgrimage (1915–35) and by James Joyce
in Ulysses
(1922), and further developed by Virginia Woolf
in Mrs Dalloway
(1925) and William Faulkner
in The Sound and the Fury
(1928). For a fuller account, consult Robert Humphrey, Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel (1968).
can be perceived as a precursor of the 'stream of consciousness' writing-style, because of his renunciation of chronology in favor of free association: « Il a pour objet d'évoquer le flux ininterrompu des pensées qui traversent l'âme du personnage au fur et à mesure qu'elles naissent sans en expliquer l'enchaînement logique. »
Thereby anticipating the stream of consciousness narratives of Joyce and of Virginia Woolf.
A
B
C
D
E
F
and Smile From The Streets You Hold
G
H
J
K
L
M
O
N
P
R
S
T
W
The technique has been parodied, for example, by David Lodge
in the final chapter of The British Museum Is Falling Down
.
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode that seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
, or in connection to his or her actions.
Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
difficult to follow. Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are distinguished from dramatic monologue
Dramatic monologue
M. H. Abrams notes the following three features of the dramatic monologue as it applies to poetry:-Types of monologues:One of the most important influences on the development of the dramatic monologue is the Romantic poets...
, where the speaker is addressing an audience or a third person
Third person
Third person may refer to:* A grammatical person, he, she, "them" and they in the English language* Third-person narrative, a perspective in plays, storytelling, or movies...
, which is used chiefly in poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
or drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
. In stream of consciousness, the speaker's thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself); it is primarily a fictional device. The term was introduced to the field of literary studies from that of psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, where it was coined by philosopher and psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
.
Stream of consciousness is the continuous flow of sense‐perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind or a literary method of representing a blending of mental processes in fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al characters, usually in an unpunctuated or disjointed form of interior monologue. The term is often used as a synonym for interior monologue, but they can also be distinguished, in two ways. In the first (psychological) sense, the stream of consciousness is the subject‐matter while interior monologue is the technique for presenting it; thus Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
's novel A la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27) is about the stream of consciousness, especially the connection between sense‐impressions and memory, but it does not actually use interior monologue. In the second (literary) sense, stream of consciousness is a special style of interior monologue: while an interior monologue always presents a character's thoughts ‘directly’, without the apparent intervention of a summarizing and selecting narrator, it does not necessarily mingle them with impressions and perceptions, nor does it necessarily violate the norms of grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
, syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
, and logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
; but the stream‐of‐consciousness technique also does one or both of these things. An important device of modernist fiction and its later imitators, the technique was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson
Dorothy Richardson
Dorothy Miller Richardson was a British author and journalist.-Biography:Richardson was born in Abingdon in 1873. Her family moved to Worthing, West Sussex in 1880 and then Putney, London in 1883...
in Pilgrimage (1915–35) and by James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
in Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
(1922), and further developed by Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
in Mrs Dalloway
Mrs Dalloway
Mrs Dalloway is a novel by Virginia Woolf that details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in post-World War I England. It is one of Woolf's best-known novels....
(1925) and William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
in The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury is a novel written by the American author William Faulkner. It employs a number of narrative styles, including the technique known as stream of consciousness, pioneered by 20th century European novelists such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Published in 1929, The Sound and...
(1928). For a fuller account, consult Robert Humphrey, Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel (1968).
Precursor
Les Lauriers sont coupés (1887) by Édouard DujardinÉdouard Dujardin
Édouard Dujardin was a French writer, one of the early users of the stream of consciousness literary technique, exemplified by his 1888 novel Les Lauriers sont coupés.-Biography:...
can be perceived as a precursor of the 'stream of consciousness' writing-style, because of his renunciation of chronology in favor of free association: « Il a pour objet d'évoquer le flux ininterrompu des pensées qui traversent l'âme du personnage au fur et à mesure qu'elles naissent sans en expliquer l'enchaînement logique. »
Thereby anticipating the stream of consciousness narratives of Joyce and of Virginia Woolf.
Notable works
Examples of notable works employing stream of consciousness are:A
- Rabih AlameddineRabih AlameddineRabih Alameddine is a Lebanese-American painter and writer. He was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents . He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left...
's Koolaids: The Art of WarKoolaids: The Art of WarKoolaids: The Art of War is a novel written by Rabih Alameddine, a successful painter who lives in both San Francisco and Beirut. He grew up in the Middle East, in Kuwait and Lebanon. Published in 1998, Koolaids is Alameddine's first novel. The majority of the story takes place in San Francisco...
(1998), an example of a postmodern application of stream of consciousness - Jerzy AndrzejewskiJerzy AndrzejewskiJerzy Andrzejewski was a prolific Polish author. His novels, Ashes and Diamonds , and Holy Week , have been made into film adaptations by the Oscar-winning Polish director Andrzej Wajda...
's Gates to ParadiseGates to ParadiseGates to Paradise is a 1968 film by Polish director Andrzej Wajda. The film is set in medieval France and is based on a story by Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski that seeks to expose the motives behind youthful religious zeal...
(1960) - António Lobo AntunesAntónio Lobo AntunesAntónio Lobo Antunes, GCSE, MD ; born 1 September 1942) is a Portuguese novelist and medical doctor.-Life and career:António Lobo Antunes was born in Lisbon as the eldest of six sons of João Alfredo de Figueiredo Lobo Antunes , prominent Neurologist and Professor, close collaborator of Egas Moniz,...
's later works - Oğuz AtayOguz AtayOğuz Atay was a pioneer of the modern novel in Turkey. His first novel, Tutunamayanlar , appeared 1971-72. Never reprinted in his lifetime and controversial among critics, it has become a best-seller since a new edition came out in 1984...
's TutunamayanlarTutunamayanlarTutunamayanlar is the first novel of Oguz Atay, one of the most prominent Turkish authors. It was written in 1970-71 and published in 1972. Although it was never reprinted in his lifetime and was controversial among critics, it has become a best-seller since a new edition came out in 1984...
(The Disconnected) (1972)
B
- Will Christopher BaerWill Christopher BaerWill Christopher Baer is an American author of noir fiction, often delving into sex, violence, mystery and erotica. Currently published works include Kiss Me, Judas, Penny Dreadful and Hell's Half Acre, all of which have since been published in the single volume Phineas Poe...
's Phineas PoePhineas PoePhineas Poe is a novella collection by Will Christopher Baer. It contains three stories, Kiss Me, Judas, Penny Dreadful & Hell's Half Acre and was first published in 2005...
trilogy (2005) - Bahram BayzaiBahram BayzaiBahrām Beyzāi is an Iranian film director, theatre director, screenwriter, playwright, film editor, producer, and researcher....
's Death of Yazdgerd (1982) - Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's 'trilogy' :- MolloyMolloy (novel)Molloy is a novel by Samuel Beckett. The English translation is by Beckett and Patrick Bowles.-Plot introduction:On first appearance the book concerns two different characters, both of whom have interior monologues in the book. As the story moves along the two characters are distinguished by name...
(1951) - Malone DiesMalone DiesMalone Dies is a novel by Samuel Beckett. It was first published in 1951, in French, as Malone Meurt, and later translated into English by the author....
(1951) - The UnnamableThe UnnamableThe Unnamable may mean:* The Unnamable , a 1953 novel by Samuel Beckett* "The Unnamable" , by H. P. Lovecraft* The Unnamable , a 1988 movie based on the H. P. Lovecraft short story...
(1953)
- Molloy
- Alan BennettAlan BennettAlan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
's A Cream Cracker Under The SetteeA Cream Cracker under the SetteeA Cream Cracker Under The Settee is a dramatic monologue written by Alan Bennett in 1987 for television, as part of his Talking Heads series for the BBC. The series became very popular, moving onto BBC Radio, international theatre, becoming one of the best-selling audio book releases of all time...
, (1987) - Giuseppe BertoGiuseppe BertoGiuseppe Berto was an Italian writer. He is mostly known for his novels, among which Il cielo è rosso and Il male oscuro; he also wrote for cinema.-Selected works:...
's Il male oscuro (1964) - Carry van Bruggen's Eva (1927)
- William Burroughs's Naked LunchNaked LunchNaked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order...
(1959) - Robert BurtonRobert Burton (scholar)Robert Burton was an English scholar at Oxford University, best known for the classic The Anatomy of Melancholy. He was also the incumbent of St Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, and of Segrave in Leicestershire.-Life:...
's The Anatomy of MelancholyThe Anatomy of MelancholyThe Anatomy of Melancholy The Anatomy of Melancholy The Anatomy of Melancholy (Full title: The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their several Sections, Members, and Subsections...
(1621)
C
- Albert CamusAlbert CamusAlbert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
' The Fall (1956) - Anton Chekov's Short Stories and Plays (1883–1903)
- Daniel ClowesDaniel ClowesDaniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
' "Like a Velvet Glove Cast in IronLike a Velvet Glove Cast in IronLike a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Daniel Clowes. The book follows a rather fantastic and paranoid plot, very different from the stark realism of Clowes' later more widely known Ghost World...
" - Albert CohenAlbert CohenAlbert Cohen was a Greek-born Romaniote Jewish Swiss novelist who wrote in French. He worked as a civil servant for various international organizations, such as the International Labour Organization...
's Belle du Seigneur (1968) - Julio CortázarJulio CortázarJulio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...
's RayuelaRayuelaHopscotch is a novel by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar. Written in Paris and published in Spanish in 1963 and in English in 1966, the English translation by Gregory Rabassa won the 1967 U.S. National Book Award. Hopscotch is an introspective stream-of-consciousness novel where characters...
(Hopscotch) (1963) - Michael CunninghamMichael CunninghamMichael Cunningham is an American writer, best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999.-Early life and education:...
's The HoursThe Hours (novel)The Hours is a 1998 novel written by Michael Cunningham. It won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and was later made into an Oscar-winning 2002 movie of the same name starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore.-Plot introduction:The book...
(1998) (an homage to Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway)
D
- Mark Z. DanielewskiMark Z. DanielewskiMark Z. Danielewski, born March 5, 1966 in New York City, New York, is an American author, best known for his debut novel House of Leaves...
's- Only RevolutionsOnly RevolutionsOnly Revolutions is an American road novel by writer Mark Z. Danielewski. It was released in the United States on September 12, 2006 by Pantheon Books. It was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.-Plot summary:...
(2006)
- Only Revolutions
- Samuel R. DelanySamuel R. DelanySamuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
's DhalgrenDhalgrenDhalgren is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. The story begins with a cryptic passage:to wound the autumnal city.So howled out for the world to give him a name.The in-dark answered with wind....
(1975) - John Dos PassosJohn Dos PassosJohn Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dos Passos was the illegitimate son of John Randolph Dos Passos , a distinguished lawyer of Madeiran Portuguese descent, and Lucy Addison Sprigg Madison of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Dos Passos...
's The 42nd Parallel(1930) - Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from UndergroundNotes from UndergroundNotes from Underground is an 1864 short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Notes is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel...
(1864) - Autran DouradoAutran DouradoWaldomiro Freitas Autran Dourado is a contemporary Brazilian novelist. He was born in the state of Minas Gerais. Going against current trends in Brazilian literature, Dourado's works display much concern with literary form, with many obscure words and expressions...
's- Voices of the Dead (1967)
- Pattern for a Tapestry (1970)
- Bells of Agony (1974)
- Édouard DujardinÉdouard DujardinÉdouard Dujardin was a French writer, one of the early users of the stream of consciousness literary technique, exemplified by his 1888 novel Les Lauriers sont coupés.-Biography:...
's Les Lauriers sont coupés (1888)
E
- Dave EggersDave EggersDave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...
's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering GeniusA Heartbreaking Work of Staggering GeniusA Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a memoir by Dave Eggers released in 2000. It chronicles his stewardship of younger brother Christopher "Toph" Eggers following the cancer-related deaths of his parents....
(2000) - T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
's "The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockThe Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockThe Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, commonly known as Prufrock, is a poem by T. S. Eliot, begun in February 1910 and published in Chicago in June 1915. Described as a "drama of literary anguish," it presents a stream of consciousness in the form of a dramatic monologue, and marked the beginning of...
" (1915) - Bret Easton EllisBret Easton EllisBret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 different languages. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney...
'- Less Than Zero (1985)
- The Rules of AttractionThe Rules of AttractionThe Rules of Attraction is a dark comedy and satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis published in 1987. The novel focuses on a handful of rowdy and often sexually promiscuous, spoiled Bohemian college students at a liberal arts college in 1980s New Hampshire, primarily focusing on three of them who...
(1987) - American PsychoAmerican PsychoAmerican Psycho is a psychological thriller and satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the first person by the protagonist, serial killer and Manhattan businessman Patrick Bateman. The book's graphic violence and sexual content generated a great deal of...
(1991) - The InformersThe InformersThe Informers is a collection of short stories, seemingly linked by the same continuity, authored by American author Bret Easton Ellis. It was first published as a whole in 1994. Chapters 6 and 7, "Water from the Sun" and "Discovering Japan", were published separately in the UK by Picador in 2007...
(1994) - GlamoramaGlamoramaGlamorama is a novel by American writer Bret Easton Ellis. It was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1998. Unlike Ellis' previous novels, Glamorama is set in and satirizes the 1990s, specifically celebrity culture and consumerism...
(1998) - Lunar ParkLunar ParkLunar Park is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis with elements of faux autobiography and pastiche. It was released by Knopf on August 16, 2005. It is notable for being the first book written by Ellis to use past tense narrative.-Plot summary:...
(2005)
- James EllroyJames EllroyLee Earle "James" Ellroy is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a so-called "telegraphic" prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, staccato sentences, and in particular for the novels The Black...
's White JazzWhite JazzWhite Jazz is a 1992 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the fourth in his L.A. Quartet, preceded by The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, and L.A. Confidential....
(1992)
F
- William FaulknerWilliam FaulknerWilliam Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
's- The Sound and the FuryThe Sound and the FuryThe Sound and the Fury is a novel written by the American author William Faulkner. It employs a number of narrative styles, including the technique known as stream of consciousness, pioneered by 20th century European novelists such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Published in 1929, The Sound and...
(1929) - As I Lay Dying (1930)
- Absalom, Absalom!Absalom, Absalom!Absalom, Absalom! is a Southern Gothic novel by the American author William Faulkner, first published in 1936. It is a story about three families of the American South, taking place before, during, and after the Civil War, with the focus of the story on the life of Thomas Sutpen.-Plot...
(1936) - Intruder in the DustIntruder in the DustIntruder in the Dust is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning American author William Faulkner publishedin 1948.The novel focuses on Lucas Beauchamp, a black farmer accused of murdering a white man. He is exonerated through the efforts of black and white teenagers and a spinster from a...
(1948)
- The Sound and the Fury
- Jack FeldsteinJack FeldsteinJack Feldstein is a Jewish animator and scriptwriter from Sydney, Australia, now living in New York. He is the pioneer of Neon Films.His trademark style is the "neonizing" of a combination of live action video recording and public domain material, particularly cartoons...
's stream-of-consciousness neon animations. - Jonathan Safran FoerJonathan Safran FoerJonathan Safran Foer is an American author best known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close...
's Everything is IlluminatedEverything Is IlluminatedEverything Is Illuminated is the first novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. It was adapted into a film by the same name starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz in 2005.-Plot summary:...
(2002) - F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
's The Great GatsbyThe Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
(1925) - John FruscianteJohn FruscianteJohn Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...
's Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-ShirtNiandra Lades and Usually Just a T-ShirtNiandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt is the debut solo album by John Frusciante, released on March 8, 1994, on American Recordings. Frusciante released the album after encouragement from several friends, who told him that there was "no good music around anymore."Niandra Lades and Usually Just a...
and Smile From The Streets You Hold
Smile from the Streets You Hold
Smile from the Streets You Hold is the second solo album by John Frusciante. The record was released during a time when Frusciante was not performing with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was released on August 26, 1997 on Birdman Records, while Frusciante was still addicted to heroin...
G
- Lewis Grassic GibbonLewis Grassic GibbonLewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell , a Scottish writer.-Biography:...
's Sunset SongSunset SongSunset Song is a 1932 novel by the Scottish writer Lewis Grassic Gibbon. It is widely regarded as one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century...
(1932) - Kaye GibbonsKaye GibbonsKaye Gibbons is an American novelist. Her 1987 debut, Ellen Foster, received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Special Citation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, and the The Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Prize in Creative Writing from...
' Ellen FosterEllen FosterEllen Foster is a 1987 novel by American novelist Kaye Gibbons. It was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in October 1997.-Plot introduction:The novel follows the story of Ellen, the first person narrator, a young white American girl living under unfavorable conditions somewhere in the rural...
(1987) - Nadine GordimerNadine GordimerNadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...
's July's PeopleJuly's PeopleJuly's People is a 1981 novel by 1991 Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer. Nadine Gordimer wrote this book before the end of apartheid as her prediction of how it would end.-Banning:The book was notably banned in South Africa after its publication....
(1981)
H
- Knut HamsunKnut HamsunKnut Hamsun was a Norwegian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. He was praised by King Haakon VII of Norway as Norway's soul....
's HungerHunger (novel)Hunger is a novel by the Norwegian author Knut Hamsun and was published in its final form in 1890. Parts of it had been published anonymously in the Danish magazine Ny Jord in 1888. The novel has been hailed as the literary opening of the 20th century and an outstanding example of modern,...
(1890) and MysteriesMysteries (novel)Mysteries is a novel by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun.-Plot introduction:In this intensely psychological Modernist novel, the community of a small Norwegian coastal town is "[shaken]" by the arrival of eccentric stranger Johan Nagel...
(1892) - Hermann HesseHermann HesseHermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's SteppenwolfSteppenwolf (novel)Steppenwolf is the tenth novel by German-Swiss author Hermann Hesse. Originally published in Germany in 1927, it was first translated into English in 1929. Combining autobiographical and psychoanalytic elements, the novel was named after the lonesome wolf of the steppes...
(1927) - Hilda HilstHilda HilstHilda de Almeida Prado Hilst, more widely known as Hilda Hilst was a Brazilian poet, playwright and novelist, whose fiction and poetry were generally based upon delicate intimacy and often insanity and supernatural events. Particularly her late works belong to the tradition of magic realism.-Early...
's novels.
J
- The State of America, A Journal by Doug Jackson (2010)
- James JoyceJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's- EvelineEvelineEveline is a story from Dubliners by James Joyce.-The story :A young woman of about nineteen years of age sits by her window, waiting to leave home. She muses on the aspects of her life that are driving her away, while "in her nostrils was the smell of dusty cretonne". Her mother has died as has...
(1914) - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManA Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917...
(1916) - UlyssesUlysses (novel)Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
(1922) - Finnegans Wake (1939)
- Eveline
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- Jack KerouacJack KerouacJean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
's- On the RoadOn the RoadOn the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of...
- Visions of CodyVisions of CodyVisions of Cody is an experimental novel by Jack Kerouac. It was written in 1951-1952, and though not published in its entirety until 1973, it had by then achieved an underground reputation...
- Lonesome TravelerLonesome TravelerLonesome Traveler is a collection of short stories and sketches by American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, published in 1960. It is a compilation of Kerouac's journal entries about traveling the United States, Mexico, Morocco, the United Kingdom and France, and covers similar issues to his novels...
- "Big SurBig Sur (novel)Big Sur is a 1962 novel by Jack Kerouac. It recounts the events surrounding Kerouac's three brief sojourns to a cabin in Bixby Canyon, Big Sur, owned by Kerouac's friend and Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
" (1962)
- On the Road
- Ken KeseyKen KeseyKenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel)One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey. Set in an Oregon asylum, the narrative serves as a study of the institutional process and the human mind, as well as a critique of Behaviorism and a celebration of humanistic principles. Written in 1959, the novel was adapted into a...
(1962)- particularly Chief Bromden's thoughts during electroshock therapy.
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- Clarice LispectorClarice LispectorClarice Lispector was a Brazilian writer. Acclaimed internationally for her innovative novels and short stories, she was also a journalist...
's whole work
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- Hugh MacDiarmidHugh MacDiarmidHugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...
's A Drunk Man Looks at the ThistleA Drunk Man Looks at the ThistleA Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle is a long poem by Hugh MacDiarmid written in Scots and published in 1926. It is composed as a form of monologue with influences from stream of consciousness genres of writing...
(1926) - Cormac McCarthyCormac McCarthyCormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road...
's- SuttreeSuttreeSuttree is a semi-autobiographical novel by Cormac McCarthy, published in 1979. Set in 1951 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the novel follows Cornelius Suttree, who has repudiated his former life of privilege to become a fisherman on the Tennessee River. The novel has a fragmented structure with many...
(1979) - Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the WestBlood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the WestBlood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West is a 1985 Western novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy's fifth book, it was published by Random House....
(1985)
- Suttree
- Patrick McCabe's The Butcher BoyThe Butcher BoyThe Butcher Boy is a 1992 novel by Patrick McCabe. It was shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize and won the 1992 Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Fiction.The Butcher Boy is set in a small town in Ireland in the late 1950s...
(1992) - Wang MengWang MengWang Meng , courtesy name Jinglüe , formally Marquess Wu of Qinghe , served as prime minister to the Former Qin emperor Fu Jiān in the fourth century...
's Voices of Spring - Henry MillerHenry MillerHenry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
's- "Tropic of CancerTropic of Cancer (novel)Tropic of Cancer is a novel by Henry Miller which has been described as "notorious for its candid sexuality" and as responsible for the "free speech that we now take for granted in literature." It was first published in 1934 by the Obelisk Press in Paris, France, but this edition was banned in the...
" (1934) - "Black Spring" (1936)
- "Tropic of CapricornTropic of Capricorn (novel)Tropic of Capricorn is a semi-autobiographical novel by Henry Miller, first published in Paris in 1938. The novel was subsequently banned in the United States until a 1961 Justice Department ruling declared that its contents were not obscene. It is a sequel to Miller's 1934 work, the Tropic of...
" (1938)
- "Tropic of Cancer
O
- Alan DuffAlan DuffAlan Duff is a New Zealand novelist and newspaper columnist, most well known as the author of Once Were Warriors.- Biography :...
's Once Were WarriorsOnce Were WarriorsOnce Were Warriors is New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling first novel, published in 1990. It tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and portrays the reality of domestic violence. It was the basis of a 1994 film, directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Rena Owen and Temuera...
(1990)
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- Gaspar NoéGaspar NoéGaspar Noé is an Argentine filmmaker and the son of Argentine painter and intellectual Luis Felipe Noé. He graduated from Louis Lumière College and is the visiting professor of film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland...
's Enter the VoidEnter the VoidEnter the Void is a French film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, and Cyril Roy. Set in the neon-lit nightclub environments of Tokyo, the story follows Oscar, a young American drug dealer who gets shot by the police, but continues to watch succeeding...
(2009)
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- Chuck PalahniukChuck PalahniukCharles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is an American transgressional fiction novelist and freelance journalist. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter...
's Fight ClubFight Club (novel)Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, he finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups... - Sylvia PlathSylvia PlathSylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
's "The Bell JarThe Bell JarThe Bell Jar is American writer and poet Sylvia Plath's only novel, which was originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963. The novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed...
" - Marcel ProustMarcel ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
In Search of Lost TimeIn Search of Lost TimeIn Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past is a novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its considerable length and the notion of involuntary memory, the most famous example being the "episode of the madeleine." The novel is widely...
, (or À la recherche du temps perdu ) 1913 - 1927 - Thomas PynchonThomas PynchonThomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's Gravity's RainbowGravity's RainbowGravity's Rainbow is a postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973.The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, in particular, the quest...
(1973)
R
- Rumi's MasnaviMasnaviThe Masnavi, Masnavi-I Ma'navi or Mesnevi , also written Mathnawi, Ma'navi, or Mathnavi, is an extensive poem written in Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, the celebrated Persian Sufi saint and poet. It is one of the best known and most influential works of both Sufism and Persian literature...
(1258–1273) - Jean RhysJean RhysJean Rhys , born Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, was a mid 20th-century novelist from Dominica. Educated from the age of 16 in Great Britain, she is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea , written as a "prequel" to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.-Early life:Rhys was born in Roseau, Dominica...
's Wide Sargasso SeaWide Sargasso SeaWide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 postcolonial parallel novel by Dominica-born author Jean Rhys. Since her previous work, Good Morning, Midnight, was published in 1939, Rhys had lived in obscurity. Wide Sargasso Sea put Rhys into the limelight once more, and became her most successful novel.The novel...
(1966) - Dorothy RichardsonDorothy RichardsonDorothy Miller Richardson was a British author and journalist.-Biography:Richardson was born in Abingdon in 1873. Her family moved to Worthing, West Sussex in 1880 and then Putney, London in 1883...
's Pilgrimage (1915–28) - Mercè RodoredaMercè RodoredaMercè Rodoreda i Gurguí was a Spanish Catalan novelist in the Catalan language.She is considered by many to be the most important Catalan novelist of the postwar period...
's The Time of the DovesThe Time of the DovesThe Time Of The Doves is a 1962 novel written by exiled Catalan writer Mercè Rodoreda. It is noted by its use of stream of consciousness. The book is named after a square in Barcelona's district of Gràcia...
(1962)- Kiss Me, JudasKiss Me, JudasKiss Me, Judas is the first published novel by American author Will Christopher Baer. The plot uses an urban legend, with protagonist Phineas Poe waking up in a hotel bathtub full of ice to discover that somebody has removed one of his kidneys...
- Hell's Half AcreHell's Half AcreHell’s Half-Acre, Hell’s Half-acre, or Hell’s Half Acre can refer to:In places:*Hell's Half Acre Lava Field, a basaltic lava field on the Snake River Plain, Idaho, USA...
- Penny DreadfulPenny Dreadful (novel)Penny Dreadful, is the second novel by American novelist Will Christopher Baer. It is written in the grim style of hardboiled fiction...
(parts)
- Kiss Me, Judas
- Salman Rushdie's Midnight's ChildrenMidnight's ChildrenMidnight's Children is a 1981 book by Salman Rushdie about India's transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition of India. It is considered an example of postcolonial literature and magical realism...
(1981)
S
- Muslih al-Din Sa'di ShiraziSaadi (poet)Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī better known by his pen-name as Saʿdī or, simply, Saadi, was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is not only famous in Persian-speaking countries, but he has also been quoted in western sources...
's Bostan ("The Orchard") (completed in 1257), GulistanGulistan of Sa'diThe Gulistan is a landmark literary work in Persian literature, perhaps its single most influential work of prose. Written in 1259 CE, it is one of two major works of the Persian poet Sa'di, considered one of the greatest medieval Persian poets. It is also one of his most popular books, and...
("The Rose Garden") (1258) - J. D. SalingerJ. D. SalingerJerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....
's- Seymour: An Introduction (1963)
- The Catcher in the RyeThe Catcher in the RyeThe Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, language, and rebellion. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major...
- Arthur SchnitzlerArthur SchnitzlerDr. Arthur Schnitzler was an Austrian author and dramatist.- Biography :Arthur Schnitzler, son of a prominent Hungarian-Jewish laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter , was born in Praterstraße 16, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian...
's Lieutenant Gustl (1900), 'Fräulein Else (1924) - Hubert Selby Jr.'s
- Last Exit to BrooklynLast Exit to BrooklynLast Exit to Brooklyn is a 1964 novel by American author Hubert Selby, Jr. The novel has become a cult classic because of its harsh, uncompromising look at lower class Brooklyn in the 1950s and for its brusque, everyman style of prose....
(1964) - The RoomThe Room (novel)The Room is the second novel by Hubert Selby, Jr., first published in 1971.-Plot:The novel centers on a nameless petty criminal locked in a remand cell, and explores his feelings of impotence, hatred and rage, and fantasies of revenge.-Reception:...
(1971) - Requiem for a DreamRequiem for a Dream (novel)Requiem for a Dream is a 1978 novel by Hubert Selby, Jr., that concerns four New Yorkers whose lives spiral out of control as they succumb to their addictions....
(1978)
- Last Exit to Brooklyn
- Sam Selvon's The Lonely LondonersThe Lonely LondonersThe Lonely Londoners is a 1956 novel by British Caribbean author Samuel Selvon. Its publication marked the first literary work focusing on poor, working class blacks in the beat writer tradition following the enactment of the British Nationality Act 1948....
(1956) - Leslie Marmon SilkoLeslie Marmon SilkoLeslie Marmon Silko is a Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, and one of the key figures in the second wave of what Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...
's CeremonyCeremony (Silko novel)Ceremony is a novel by Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko, first published by Penguin in 1977.The story documents the troubles of Tayo, a half-white, half-Laguna Indian, as he struggles to cope with returning to traditional Native American society after surviving the Bataan Death March of...
(1977) - Sasha SokolovSasha SokolovSasha Sokolov is a paradoxical writer of Russian literature....
's A School for FoolsA School for FoolsA School for Fools is a novel written by Sasha Sokolov in the 1960s. "A School for Fools" was first circulated via 'samizdat,' or self-publication through underground connections. However, the novel was formally published in 1976 in U.S....
(1960) - William StyronWilliam StyronWilliam Clark Styron, Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.For much of his career, Styron was best known for his novels, which included...
's Lie Down in Darkness (1951) - Italo SvevoItalo SvevoAron Ettore Schmitz , better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo, was an Italian writer and businessman, author of novels, plays, and short stories.- Biography :...
's La coscienza di Zeno (1923)
T
- Pier Vittorio TondelliPier Vittorio TondelliPier Vittorio Tondelli was an Italian writer who wrote a small but influential body of work. He was born in Correggio, a small town in the province of Emilia-Romagna in Italy and died in nearby Reggio Emilia of AIDS...
's- Altri libertini (1980)
- Pao Pao (1982)
- Dalton TrumboDalton TrumboJames Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter and novelist, and one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of film professionals who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry...
's Johnny Got His GunJohnny Got His GunJohnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel written in 1938 by American novelist and screenwriter Dalton Trumboand published by J. B. Lippincott company.-Plot:...
(1939)
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- Irvine WelshIrvine WelshIrvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
's TrainspottingTrainspotting (novel)Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. It is written in the form of short chapters narrated in the first person by various residents of Leith, Edinburgh, who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are...
(1993) - Robert Anton WilsonRobert Anton WilsonRobert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...
& Robert SheaRobert SheaRobert Joseph Shea was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy Illuminatus!. It became a cult success and was later turned into a marathon-length stage show put on at the British National Theatre and elsewhere. In...
's Illuminatus! (1975) - Gene WolfeGene WolfeGene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
's The Book of the New SunThe Book of the New SunThe Book of the New Sun is a novel in four parts written by science fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe. It chronicles the journey and ascent to power of Severian, a disgraced journeyman torturer who rises to the position of Autarch, the one ruler of the free world...
(1980–83) - Virginia WoolfVirginia WoolfAdeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
's- Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
- To the LighthouseTo the LighthouseTo the Lighthouse is a novel by Virginia Woolf. A novel set on the Ramsays and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920, it skilfully manipulates temporal and psychological elements....
(1927) - The WavesThe Waves- External links :* The Waves, at wikilivres.info...
(1931)
The technique has been parodied, for example, by David Lodge
David Lodge (author)
David John Lodge CBE, is an English author.In his novels, Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular. He was brought up Catholic and has described himself as an "agnostic Catholic". Many of his characters are Catholic and their Catholicism is a major theme...
in the final chapter of The British Museum Is Falling Down
The British Museum Is Falling Down
The British Museum Is Falling Down is a comic novel by British author David Lodge about a 25-year-old poverty-stricken student of English literature who, rather than work on his thesis in the reading room of the British Museum, is time and again distracted from his work and who gets into all...
.
See also
- Stream of consciousness (psychology)Stream of consciousness (psychology)Stream of consciousness refers to the flow of thoughts in the conscious mind. The full range of thoughts that one can be aware of can form the content of this stream, not just verbal thoughts...
- free writingFree writingFree writing — also called stream-of-consciousness writing — is a prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and...