stream of consciousness

/strim əv ˈkɑntʃəsnɪs/

/strim əv ˈkɒntʃəsnɪs/

Other forms: streams of consciousness

Stream of consciousness is every connected thought, feeling, or observation moving through a person's mind. Writers use stream of consciousness to show what's going through a character's head.

James Joyce and Virginia Woolf were among the earliest novelists to use stream of consciousness to reflect the perspective of their protagonists. It's a literary method that brings the reader inside a character's mind, seeing what she sees and feeling her passing emotions. The phrase originated in psychology, when William James coined it in 1890 to describe consciousness, the state of being awake and aware of the world, as flowing like a river rather than being "chopped up in bits."

Definitions of stream of consciousness

1. noun

   the continuous flow of ideas and feelings that constitute an individual's conscious experience
   type of:

   consciousness

   an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation
2. noun

   a literary genre that reveals a character's thoughts and feeling as they develop by means of a long soliloquy
   type of:

   prose

   ordinary writing as distinguished from verse