stream of consciousness

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stream of consciousness

n. pl. streams of consciousness

1. A literary technique that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur.

2. Psychology The conscious experience of an individual regarded as a continuous, flowing series of images and ideas running through the mind.

stream′-of-con′scious·ness adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

stream of consciousness

1. (Psychology) psychol the continuous flow of ideas, thoughts, and feelings forming the content of an individual's consciousness. The term was originated by William James

2. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms)

a. a literary technique that reveals the flow of thoughts and feelings of characters through long passages of soliloquy

b. (as modifier): a stream-of-consciousness novel.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

stream′ of con′sciousness

1. thought regarded as a succession of ideas and images constantly moving forward in time.

2. a style of writing in which a character's random thoughts are represented by disregarding logical sequence, normal syntax, or distinctions in the levels of reality.

[1850–55]

stream′-of-con′sciousness, adj.

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Noun	1.	stream of consciousness - a literary genre that reveals a character's thoughts and feeling as they develop by means of a long soliloquy prose - ordinary writing as distinguished from verse
	2.	stream of consciousness - the continuous flow of ideas and feelings that constitute an individual's conscious experience consciousness - an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation; "he lost consciousness"

References in periodicals archive ?

Speaking of stream of consciousness, another important metaphor for mind in this book is water.

Franca Mancinelli: The Little Book of Passage

New Delhi [India], Jan 25 ( ANI ): Google, with its doodle on Thursday, marked the 136th birth anniversary of English author Virgina Woolf, one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.

Google Doodle marks Virgina Woolf's b'day

The second stream of consciousness, which we can call your "secondary process mind" (or your "person mind" or your "deliberative, self-conscious mind" or your "head") is the part of your mind that talks and deliberates and reflects and makes explicit claims about reality.

Beat negativity with a positive attitude

Where we part company is that Matlock proposes that aspects of the stream of consciousness. such as memories, may be dragged along with the self or soul after death, and thus such personality traits may survive death.

Correspondence

The postmodern structure of this collection creates poetic fragments that are seamlessly interwoven in an effortless stream of consciousness flow.

Claudia Rankine's Plot: Book Review

Channeling his soul and putting it in a flowing, stream of consciousness style throughout his book, he tells a story like no other.

The Skeleton of the Crow

The downside is that some of the stream of consciousness whimsy has been sacrificed for contemporary production values, but still a great album.

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Apart from the obvious fact that anyone with the tiniest amount of sense can see that a three-year-old being snatched from their bed is of course, a major news story, his article, apart from making snide comments about the child's family, was in my view a rambling stream of consciousness with no real point.

Letter: Your Say - Maddie: Race not an issue; In association with POST OFFICE

Simultaneous with the odyssey-cum-travelogue, the author takes the reader along in a stream of consciousness through his early memories of playing the game, his disquieting injuries received while playing the game, and a historical discourse of very minimally important yet colorful leagues, teams, and players with whom he is familiar.

Baseball Love

Joe Dennis delivers an incredible stream of consciousness novel.

Cave of the Painter's Mind

The other person would keep time, watch, and write a stream of consciousness. The writer would call time and the dancer would freeze.

From Hollywood to Downtown: Claire Danes explores her dance roots

When we fail to recall these sacred ties, we lose touch with the onrushing stream of consciousness that flows through memory from generation to generation.