![]() ![]() It is considered to be the state of being aware of one’s individual and subjective experience. Weerasekera suggested that the stream of consciousness is also referred to even in the early writings of Buddhism where it is actually called Mind Stream or the Practice of Mindfulness. Secondly, thought tends to be in constant change because although belonging to one person, thoughts are utterly isolated from one another. Thought tends to be personal because several different minds simultaneously entertain several different thoughts. In addition, thought has two other characteristics. One could say James considered the critical role of this stream of consciousness to be the selector of what should be paid attention to by the mind at any given time. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life.” (p.526) ![]() A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. Such words as ‘chain’ or ‘train’ do not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. “Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. ![]() James was the first person to spell out the idea that consciousness is a “stream” or precisely “a continuous succession of experience.” He saw the role and function of consciousness as to select what to pay attention to. The term was actually coined in 1890 by William James, a philosopher and psychologist and has been adopted in literature. The above tend to be the inherent characteristics of the interior monologue. And D) art should privilege characters who achieve a deeper understanding of the self. C) art should use symbols that are abstract and as complex as dreams. B) art should focus on the inner lives of individuals as they struggle to find their real selves. Confessions, meditations and dreams are repositories of deep and privileged truth and therefore art should do the following things: A) art should focus on individuals and show how the individual is in conflict with society. He wrote about the primacy of the mind and that truth existed beneath the surface and that truth reveals itself through complex abstract symbols and perverted actions.įor Freud, the individual is more important than society. He thought that thought has privilege over action. He emphasised on the idea of the life of the mind. He invented the concept of the subconscious dimension of the mind, explaining how the subconscious influences the way we think about thinking and reality. Sigmund Freud’s ideas also had major influence on the arts during Modernism. One of the key proponents of Modernism, the American poet and critic, Ezra Pound, was not only important for his own creative writing but for his ideas that influenced other writers and artists.Įzra Pound did more than any other single figure to advance a modernist movement in English and American literature by promoting and also occasionally helping to shape the works of such writers and poets as W B Yeats, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, DH Lawrence and TS Eliot.įor example, his Make it New maxim emphasized a new kind of poetry that centered on easy choice of words and simple syntax, while focusing on very strong imagery. ![]() To achieve that, modern literature was cast in the first person and it employed the stream of consciousness. There was a clear movement towards psychological realism which promoted the inner being. There was a departure from rationality and orderly presentation in telling stories. Writers started to move from the notions of the Romantic era which had focused on nature and being. The horrifying two wars and new technology made people question the future of humanity. In this period, that also included the first and second world wars, there developed a tendency to desire to break away from the past in the way art is conceived and produced. Modernism, the mother of interior monologue was championed by writers and theorists such as Ezra Pound, Sigmund Freud and Ernst Mach. The interior monologue has varieties like reflection, flashbacks, flash forwards and poetic detours. In literature, stream of consciousness and the interior monologue are products of a movement called Modernism which started in Europe around the late nineteenth century to the twentieth century. It prevents them from being confined to physical descriptions or accounts of spoken dialogue, which was a standard literary technique prior to the rise of the stream of consciousness approach. This technique of writing allows authors to provide a more intimate portrayal of their subjects. These are streams of consciousness and interior monologues. When you read the novels of J M Coetzee, Charles Mungoshi and others, you find them using a narrative mode or device that depicts the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the minds of their characters. ![]()
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