What is stream of consciousness?
I didn’t know where I saw a post a few days ago. I don’t know what the new term ‘stream of consciousness’ means. I collected it online as follows:
The so-called stream of consciousness: First, it refers to a genre of modernist novels, and second, it refers to a technique of expression that describes the psychology of characters. There are both connections and important differences between the two.
The "stream of consciousness" novel of the modernist school was popular in France, Britain, the United States and other countries from the 1920s to the 1940s. The most famous are the French writer Proust, the Irish Joyce, the American Faulkner, and the British female writers Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf and others. They successively wrote "stream of consciousness" novels that were different from traditional novels, forming an influential literary school. After the 1940s, as an independent "stream of consciousness" faction, they no longer exist; but their creative techniques have been widely adopted and developed by many writers of different tendencies, and they have created their own unique style.
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Research has proven that stream of consciousness is different from most modernist schools. Writers of "stream of consciousness" novels do not have a unique organization, nor do they have a unified banner; However, they have similar philosophical and artistic viewpoints, similar ideological tendencies and artistic styles, and they communicate with each other and influence each other, so it should be called a relatively unique novel genre.
However, the term "stream of consciousness" was first proposed by the American pragmatist philosopher and psychologist William James. He believes that human consciousness is not a connection of fragments, but is in a state of eternal flow, so it is called "stream of consciousness." He explains: "Consciousness - it does not appear to itself as broken into pieces. Words like 'chain' or 'series' do not adequately describe what consciousness initially makes itself appear to be. It It is not something connected, it flows. Only metaphors such as "river" or "stream" can describe it naturally. When we talk about it in the future, let us call it the flow of thoughts and the flow of consciousness. And so on.
His incisive discussion tells us how the term "stream of consciousness" came into being. It does not give us a clear concept of the characteristics of "stream of consciousness" novels, nor does it give us a clear idea of ??the characteristics of "stream of consciousness" novels. We have a clear understanding of the difference between "stream of consciousness" novels and traditional novels, because judging from the actual works, some traditional writers, such as Stendhal, Flaubert, Tolstoy, etc., are also good at it. They are famous for depicting psychology, and the consciousness of their characters also has a certain length of "flow", and it is impossible to "flow" with the character's consciousness forever. Any work, when expressing the psychological state of the character, is actually a "flow". " and the unity of "pieces". That is, from a local perspective, it is a "flow"; but from a global perspective, it is just one "piece" or a few "pieces".
So "stream of consciousness" novels What is the difference between it and traditional novels? If we carefully compare duplicitous novels, we will find that the difference lies not in whether they depict psychology or whether they express the flow of consciousness, but in what kind of psychology they reveal. , what kind of flow of consciousness is expressed.
The characteristic of the stream of consciousness is to focus on describing the inner life. If we call the character's inner life "stream of consciousness", then the character's external life can be called " "Flow of life". "Stream of consciousness" is a reflection of "flow of life", but "stream of consciousness" can also react on the "flow of life" through the actions of characters. The two penetrate, influence and interact with each other. Traditional Realistic novels are about "stream of consciousness" and "flow of life". They generally use "stream of consciousness" as the main body and show the characters' psychological activities and "consciousness" in the blending of "flow". "Stream" novels mainly focus on "stream of consciousness" or even devote their efforts to writing about "stream of consciousness". Their interest is focused on exploring the hidden emotions deep in the characters' hearts, and they are not very concerned about the "flow of life". Their works may write about "stream of consciousness" in isolation, and they are very The "stream of life" is rarely or not reflected at all, so that the "stream of consciousness" becomes a sourceless water, appearing mysterious and unpredictable; or it is reflected entirely from a personal subjective point of view, and the "subjective" screen is often abnormal and deformed. Therefore, the "flow of life" reflected is often crooked and fragmented, and is a real "fragment". Their works often have no coherent plot, no clear and complete scenes, and even the characters are hazy and the writing is ink. All are based on the flow of consciousness. This feature has been shown in the earliest consciousness novels. The French novel "The Laurel Tree is Cut" can be said to be the forerunner of the stream of consciousness novels. It shows the emotional changes of a young man in love during six hours. In Joyce's words, this novel "puts the reader in the mind of the protagonist from beginning to end." British female writer Elizabeth Bowen once said that stream-of-consciousness novels are “almost always used to describe the ordinary experiences of a certain character and his reaction to these things from a purely personal perspective. Other characters in the novel give people a sense of incomprehension. The feeling of being in focus.”
"Stream of consciousness" novelists are keen on writing about inner life, which is not just a matter of description angle and expression method, but is related to their general view of the world and art.
Like symbolism and expressionism, they believe that only the subjective world is the "highest reality" and that objective reality is unreal. Proust believed that subjective truth is "the most basic thing" and only subjective works are "the only real works". Joyce asked artists to express "the reality of experience." Faulkner believed that writers should only write about human beings' "inner conflicts" and "the true feelings deep in the soul from ancient times to the present." Dorothy Richardson opposed the depiction of external reality, advocating that consciousness monopolizes everything and exclusively expresses "the reality of personal thoughts and beliefs" and allows "the reality of contemplation" to "speak independently." Virginia Woolf demanded to replace objectivity with subjectivity and strived to express the characters' "private fantasies". In her opinion, only stream of consciousness is life, reality and truth. She has a famous saying: "Life is not a series of symmetrical carriage lights. Life is a halo, a translucent layer that always surrounds our consciousness. To convey this ever-changing situation, this has yet to be understood and discussed. Isn’t it the novelist’s task to convey the fundamental spirit of the novel, no matter how unconventional and complex its expression may be, and to convey it truthfully without incorporating anything outside of itself and that is not inherent in China?” In her view, "life", that is, the inner world, is not symmetrical and logical, but like a "halo", vague and ever-changing. Literary works should focus on expressing the "fundamentals" of such intricate changes. "Spirit" and should not describe things other than the "stream of consciousness" itself.
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These views of stream-of-consciousness writers originate from modern idealist philosophy and Freud ism. Bergson believed that "reality" exists only in "the indivisible fluctuations of consciousness"; William James believed that the most fundamental thing in the universe is "pure experience", that is, "the flow of consciousness". It is "reality", and there is no "any higher-level reality" besides it. Freud believed that life is composed of the internal conflict of two basic instincts-the survival instinct and the death instinct. These are the "stream of consciousness" school. Theoretical basis.
Focusing on expressing the unconscious and subconscious, what is the main content of the inner world represented by stream-of-consciousness writers? This is also different from the way traditional novels depict characters. Psychology focuses on describing conscious inner activities. Their consciousness is orderly and logical. Sometimes the unconscious and subconscious are also described, but generally speaking, they are in a secondary and subordinate position. The main subject is the real "consciousness". "Flow". "Stream of consciousness" novels focus on writing about the irrational unconsciousness and subconsciousness, highlighting the inner chaos, confusion, trance, illogicality, animality and madness of the characters, thinking that only in this way can they be written. The original reality of psychology. In this sense, what is written in stream-of-consciousness novels is actually the "flow of unconsciousness" or "the flow of subconsciousness". It is more appropriate to call it "unconscious flow novels" or "subconscious novels".
The unconscious and subconscious are irrational, and are characterized by chaos, complexity, and change. Freud once compared the unconscious to a cauldron of crazy chaos, while James believed that "stream of consciousness" is "feeling." A kind of primitive chaos". Stream of consciousness writers advocate expressing the "primitive chaos" in the human heart without reservation. They put forward the slogans of "depersonalization" and "writers withdraw from novels", and opposed the writer's influence on the characters. It requires the author to come forward to introduce and explain, and requires the inner activities of the characters - especially the unconscious and subconscious activities hidden deep in the soul to be directly displayed in front of the readers in the original way. Wolfe emphasized that all the "thousands of impressions" in the characters' minds, whether they are "small and strange, fleeting, or carved with a sharp steel knife", should be written down. I wrote down those impressions that "came from all directions, like countless falling dust particles", thinking that only in this way can I write down "the true face of life". Wolf also said: "When thousands of dust particles fall into our hearts, let us record them in the order they fall. Let us trace the traces that every event and every scene leaves on our consciousness, regardless of their appearance. It seems so irrelevant and incoherent. Let us not assume that the so-called big things contain a more fulfilling life than the ordinary small things."
"Stream of consciousness" novels are strongly opposed to nature. ism. Wolf once used harsh language to ridicule naturalistic writers for their detailed and cumbersome descriptions of the external environment and background; however, what is interesting is that she herself advocated the same detailed and cumbersome descriptions of the subjective world. She opposes "objective" naturalism, but advocates "subjective" naturalism, requiring that everything in the human inner world be chaotic and intricate, including dreams, fantasies, illusions, the most erratic thoughts, the most inexplicable impulses, and the most trivial details. , in short, all unconscious and subconscious activities are written out.
Stream-of-consciousness novelists often add details to emphasize the absurdity, complexity, bizarreness, and unreasonableness of the unconscious. One of the methods is "daydreaming". The characters in their works dream about their dreams regardless of the occasion, and have wild imaginations, like daydreamers and sleepwalkers who do not eat the fireworks of the world. The second method is "free association" to allow characters to make sudden and leaping associations anytime and anywhere.
For example, Wolfe's short story "The Spot on the Wall" describes a woman who saw a spot on the wall, and her thoughts "rushed up", thinking about the impermanence of life, Shakespeare, collecting antiquities, and the growth of trees, and her consciousness was random. Flow, and finally return to the spot, which turns out to be a snail. The third method is "time and space confusion", which ignores the objectivity of time order and adopts Bergson's "psychological time theory" to randomly reverse, intersperse and blend the past, present and future without any explanation. The spatial order, the boundaries between fantasy and reality are broken, disturbed, tossed and entangled. The extreme ones are even willing to break the language norms, do not have a preface and a follow-up, and do not use a single punctuation mark for dozens of pages. All these and so on have the same purpose, to use sutras to highlight the unpredictable and chaotic inner unconscious activities.
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Keen to depict the characteristics of abnormal psychology, stream-of-consciousness writers, like other modernist schools, are particularly interested in distorted characters and abnormal psychology. When people lose their rationality and are mainly or completely dominated by weird and chaotic unconsciousness, such people's psychology is no longer normal. Therefore, stream-of-consciousness writers hate reason and prefer the unconscious, and they will inevitably develop into a preference for abnormal psychology. Traditional realist novels also include those about abnormal psychology, such as "Diary of a Madman" by Gogol. But overall, writing about psychology is generally the main focus. "Stream of consciousness" novelists are different. They tend to focus on the dark and chaotic "stream of consciousness" of characters with abnormal psychology, and are not interested in the "stream of consciousness" of normal people. In this regard, they are somewhat similar to naturalism. The Goncourt brothers, the main representatives of French naturalism, highlighted the characters' "lower instincts" in their novels and exaggerated their "pathological and physiological factors." Sex is here—it’s all built on neurosis.” Most of the later stream-of-consciousness novelists inherited this tradition and emphasized that literary works should express “modern consciousness.” The so-called "modern consciousness" refers to the morbid consciousness of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie who were trapped in a profound spiritual crisis in the era of imperialism. Its content is nothing more than the belief that reality is absurd, society is incredible, human beings are insignificant and incompetent, and the future of the world is bleak. As a result, they may be pessimistic and hopeless, decadent and depressed; they may have random thoughts and an empty soul; they may have schizophrenia and confusion; they may also be paranoid and eccentric, with abnormal psychology. "Stream of consciousness" novels mainly reflect the "flow" of such distorted characters. Some representative consciousness novels, such as Proust's "Reminiscences of Lost Time" and Joyce's "Ulysses" that we later recognize, are all like this.
The most typical one is the novel "The Sound and the Fury" by American writer Faulkner. The whole book is divided into four parts; the first part is about the confession of an idiot, and the second part is about the mental breakdown of a suicidal person. process, the third part is about a paranoid and perverted character of an extreme egoist. All three parts use "stream of consciousness"; only the last part is about a mentally healthy person, and accordingly, traditional is used. realistic approach. Form always adapts to a certain content. Abnormal psychology needs to be expressed in the form of "stream of consciousness"; this form of "stream of consciousness" is also suitable for expressing various pathological psychology that appear under the pressure of Western society. . I’m afraid this is also the social reason why “stream of consciousness” novels flourished for a while!
Stream of consciousness novelists are keen on writing about abnormal psychology. This is not just a matter of writing methods and personal interests, but is related to their views on human beings as a whole. They are deeply influenced by Freud's abnormal psychology and theory of evil nature, and believe that human beings are no different from animals in terms of their nature. They are no different from mental patients, their hearts are dark, chaotic, morbid, and crazy. All are governed by animal instincts and primitive impulses, with no rationality at all. Only by writing about the darkness and pathology within the human heart do they think they have written the "reality and truth" of "life".
In short, the characteristics of "stream of consciousness" are also obvious. That is to say, paying special attention to the changing unconscious and subconscious mind is the most basic. This is the most significant difference from traditional psychological novels. This is of course directly influenced by the anti-rationalism of Nietzsche, Bergson, James, Freud and others. Nietzsche said: "Consciousness only touches the surface - the most basic activity is unconsciousness"; Bergson believed that the "continuation of consciousness" is irregular, ever-changing and mysterious; James said that the stream of consciousness is "if not completely irrational" , or at least irrational.” There is also Freud's theory that compares human psychology to an iceberg, believing that consciousness is only a small part above the water, and the unconscious and subconscious are the foundation and main body that sinks to the bottom of the water. According to this theory, stream-of-consciousness novelists are doing various explorations at the bottom of the iceberg. This exploration is certainly not without its benefits.
For example, they are indeed superior to their predecessors in expressing the complexity, richness and variability of the characters' hearts; their exploration of abnormal psychology and unconscious fields reflects the psychology of certain specific classes in capitalist society. , it cannot be said that it has no social significance!