Stream of consciousness technique
The stream of consciousness technique is an artistic technique commonly used in contemporary Western literature. It mainly expresses the flow of consciousness and uses inner monologue and free association. It is named after the main method of intertwining reality and illusion.
Although the name "stream of consciousness" was first proposed by American psychologist William James in 1884, stream of consciousness novels are a trend of thought that emerged in Europe and the United States in the 1920s. Schools, but in literary and artistic creation, writers who consciously use artistic forms to express people's innermost feelings and express suppressed consciousness or subconsciousness are not just contemporary European and American writers. At the beginning of this century, Japanese Shirakawa Hakumura made a systematic analysis in "The Symbol of Depression". However, Kukawa Hakumura's theory of art does not come from the works of William James, but is a direct copy of the psychoanalysis of the Austrian psychopathologist Freud. The master of the theory and practice of stream of consciousness can be traced back to the nineteenth-century Russian writer Dostoyevsky.
It should be noted that the psychological description technique in traditional novels is not equal to the stream of consciousness technique. In terms of reflecting the psychology of the characters, the two are the same; but in terms of the form of reflection, the two are very different. The psychological description of traditional novels is only a link in expressing the content of the work. The stream of consciousness technique regards the flow of consciousness as the main body of the content of the work. General psychological description serves to explain, advance the story and express the character's personality, while the stream of consciousness technique aims to express the character's consciousness. Psychological description extracts a little bit from the reality of the character's consciousness, and it is often the rational consciousness. The stream of consciousness technique shows all the reality of the flow of the character's consciousness, including rational and irrational subconscious, subconscious and hallucinations. General descriptions of thoughts are often inner monologues or revelations of consciousness. The author uses a montage-like connection technique to break the boundaries of time and space, and the boundaries between subjectivity and objectivity, and allows pictures and shots to gallop and radiate freely, without revealing any trace of the author's description. Stendhal's novel "The Red and the Black" uses psychological description techniques; Joyce's novel "Ulysses" uses a typical stream of consciousness technique. Therefore, we cannot call general psychological descriptions or dream writing techniques a stream of consciousness technique.
As a literary genre, stream-of-consciousness novels have only existed for more than 20 years. It is only a flash in the pan in the long river of literary development and has long been eliminated by history. However, the stream-of-consciousness technique is still widely used today. Generally speaking, the theory of stream of consciousness is untenable, but there are some reasonable elements in it. Under certain circumstances, people's conscious activities are indeed continuous and chaotic. Situations such as ups and downs, emotions, and upsets are difficult to describe vividly according to traditional psychological description techniques. However, the use of stream of consciousness techniques can show its advantages. This cannot but be said to be an important aspect of literary creation techniques. an innovation. Without acknowledging this, we cannot fully explain why Western modern writers generally absorb and use certain stream-of-consciousness techniques, and why Chinese writers also learn from stream-of-consciousness techniques.