THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
In the first half of the twentieth century there was a literary revolution. Authors
experimented techniques as a reaction to the tradition of the past.
The technical device that authors used to start this revolution was the “stream of
consciousness”: this refers to a narrative form used to render the free thoughts of the
character without the intervention of the author.
This was influenced by the theory of Sigmund Freud, the theorization of objective
(chronological) and subjective (inner) time, a new conception of human consciousness, a
sense of anxiety due to the experience of the First World War.
It can be divided in:
- Direct interior monologue, that refers to the direct presentation of a character's stream
of consciousness without the presence of an author or narrator.
- Indirect interior monologue, that refers to the indirect presentation of a character
through the voice of an anonymous third person5narrator.
