Modernism and stream-of-consciousness

A few concepts of Dr. Burton’s post on Modernism stuck out me in particular. One of the idea that interested me the most was the idea of stream-of-consciousness writing. I decided to do some research and found some examples of stream-of-consciousness writing in William Faulkner’s The Sound and Fury.

A quick background on the book

The Sound and the Fury is about the decline of a once noble Southern family that ultimately falls prey to vices that are commonly viewed as causing problems in the reconstructed South (e.g., vice, avarice, racism).

The book contains examples of stream-of-consciousness writing, an omniscient “all seeing, all knowing” narrator, and several other characteristics associated with Modern literature. The novel definitely breaks with the conventional norms or writing conventions and, based off skimming I did of the novel, requires close attention to understand what is going on.

Here’s a passage illustrating stream-of-consciousness. The italics represent a jump to the past (these italics come from Faulkner). The change in color represents changes in who is thinking or acting.

“Then play with him and keep him quiet.”Jason said, “Do I have to work all day and then come home to a mad house.” He opened the paper and read it.

You can look at the fire and the mirror and the cushion too, Caddy said. You won’t have to wait until supper to look at the cushion, now. We could hear the roof. We could hear Jason too, crying loud beyond the wall.

Dilsey said, “You come, Jason. You letting him alone, is you.”

In this example, Faulkner switches from three different characters and also makes a leap back into time. Stream-of-consciousness is a very interesting and different way of writing.