A river of thoughts : the use of stream of consciousness in two essential modernist novels

Abstract

This thesis provides an analysis of the nature and use of the stream-of-consciousness narrative method in two fundamental Modernist works of literature, Ulysses by James Joyce and Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. The discussion is preceded by an introductory overview of the concept of the stream of consciousness in psychology, Freud's related therapeutic technique of free association and his ideas about the unconscious, and the way in which his techniques and ideas impacted Modernist literature. The analysis is followed by a comparison between the two novels, coupled with an evaluation of their contribution to literature and human understanding in general.