Stream Of Consciousness

Definition: Stream Of Consciousness

Stream Of Consciousness

Noun

1. A literary genre that reveals a character's thoughts and feeling as they develop by means of a long soliloquy.

2. The continuous flow of ideas and feelings that constitute an individual's conscious experience.

Specialty Definition: Stream of consciousness

In psychology and philosophy stream of consciousness, introduced by William James, is the set of constantly changing inner thoughts and sensations which an individual has while conscious. In literary criticism, stream of consciousness denotes a literary technique which seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. Stream-of-consciousness writing is strongly associated with the modernist movement.

A few of the most famous works to employ the technique are James Joyce's Ulysses (in particular Molly Bloom's soliloquy), Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, and Jack Kerouac's On the Road. The technique has also been parodied, notably by David Lodge in the final chapter of The British Museum Is Falling Down. Stream-of-consciousness writing is characterised by associative leaps that can make the prose difficult to follow. Typically, writers employ very long sentences which move from one thought to another. Sometimes, writers avoid punctuation altogether in order to prevent artificial breaks in the "stream."

Sir Thomas Browne's The Garden of Cyrus (1658) with its rapid,unconnected association of objects may, upon examination of it's text, be considered one of the earliest examples of stream-of-consciousness writing.

Contemporary singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette is also well-known for her employment of the stream-of-consciousness technique, in songs like All I Really Want, The Couch, and I Was Hoping. The album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie signifies this method of writing.

Modern Usage: Stream Of Consciousness

Commercial Usage: Stream Of Consciousness

Domain	Title
Books	Bergson and the Stream of Consciousness Novel (reference) Osho on Zen: A Stream of Consciousness Reader (reference) Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel (reference) The Stream of Consciousness and Beyond in Ulysses (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Stream Of Consciousness

Modern Translation: Stream Of Consciousness

Language		Translations for "stream of consciousness"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Bulgarian		вътрешен монолог, поток на съзнанието. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		意識の流れ . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		いしきのながれ. (various references)

Pig Latin		eamstray ofay onsciousnesscay

Russian		поток сознания. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings: Stream Of Consciousness

Anagrams: Stream Of Consciousness

Scrabble® YAWL-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-c-c-e-e-f-i-m-n-n-o-o-o-r-s-s-s-s-s-t-u"
	-5 letters: facinorousnesses.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Domain	Usage
Song Titles	Stream of Consciousness Blues (performing artist: Steven Brust)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression	Frequency per Day
stream of consciousness	47
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Stream Of Consciousness

Definition: Stream Of Consciousness