Stream of Consciousness
The term “stream of consciousness” was originated by the American idealist philosopher W. James,who viewed consciousness as a stream or river in which thoughts, sensations, and sudden
associations were constantly colliding and were won-drously and “illogically” interwoven (Principles
of Psychology, 1890).
The technique was first employed by Édouard Dujardin (1861–1949) in his novel Les Lauriers
sont coupés (1888) and was subsequently used by such notable writers as James Joyce, Virginia
Woolf, and William Faulkner. The phrase “stream of consciousness” to indicate the flow of inner
experience was first used by William James in Principles of Psychology (1890).
Stream of conciousness is a literary technique wherein the the thoughts of the character is
presented to the reader as they go through the person's consciousness hence the term "stream of
consciousness".
Explain:
A stream of conscious writing is just writing every single thought (which is impossible to get every
single thought out because there are so many going on at once that we are unaware of) on to a
piece of paper to see and prove how easily our mind shifts topics. For example, you may write ur
first thought of a pickle because your mom just said something about a pickle. the next thought
that may come to mind may be th dress ur mother wore yesterday. following, a though about the
color. that may lead to something u saw of the same color in a store. u may then be thinking to
yourself how someone came up with the name for their store. it goes on and on because your mind
literally works relentlessly.