Critical Review: Consciousness as a Stream

Consciousness as a Stream

Anne Fernihough

This article explains Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness writing style along with that of several other authors. Woolf explains that without it a work looses its sharpness and passion. The reader would be unable to find a connection without all of the “trivial” details. Woolf’s work in Jacob’s Room is described in this article as a sort of “mind wandering.” This mind wandering is also an attribute of going mad. The article uses Septimus Smith as an example. His going mad and eventually throwing himself out of a window prove that mind wandering and stream of conscious can be dangerous. The author, Anne Fernihough, explains some causes of the birth of stream-of-consciousness writing, “was just one facet of the complex cultural response to this sense of invasion and contamination, as were movements and trends centring on food reform and on the ‘simple life’” (73). She is referring to the growing trend of the masses choosing urban living. Fernihough argues that Woolf’s writing is unique to the majority because it consists of multiple people’s conscious, rather than sticking to one main character’s stream-of-conscious. It is not rare for several different characters conscious’s to be expressed on just one page. Throughout the article many other authors are studied. Among them are James Joyce, William James, and Henri Bergson to name a few. All of their opinions and techniques on writing in stream-of-consciousness are discussed.

Fernihough, Anne. "Consciousness as a Stream." The Cambridge Companion to the Modernist Novel. 65-81. Cambridge, England: Cambridge UP, 2007. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.