Abstract
This article traces the philosophical and psychological origins of the stream of consciousness technique in modern fiction. The study examines the major influences of William James’s theories of “the stream of consciousness” and “the specious present,” Henri Bergson’s doctrines pertaining to “inner evolution,” “inner time” and “involuntary memory,” Sigmund Freud’s theories of “the unconscious mind” and “repressed sexual instincts,” and Carl Gustav Jung’s concepts of “the personal unconscious” and “the collective unconscious.” The article argues that the stream of consciousness technique is the product of the confluence of these various influences from such divergent fields, and that novelists like Marcel Proust, Dorothy Richardson, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf turned inward and made the inner life of man their principal theme as a direct result of these new philosophical and psychological theories.
Keywords: stream of consciousness, William James, Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, modern fiction, specious present, involuntary memory, psychoanalysis
Introduction
From time immemorial, there has been a close link between literature and philosophy. Literature has constantly been enriched by philosophers and many literary masterpieces have become philosophical treatises. It has been observed, “life manifests itself in myriad modes. Literature is the philosophical interpretation of life. It should be one of the primary goals of literary artists to propagate through their works spiritualism and the ascendancy of character. Philosophy is the very breath of literature.”
Literary historians and critics have identified various philosophical and psychological theories as being mainly responsible for the birth of the stream of consciousness technique in fiction. They are, William James’s theories of “the stream of consciousness” and “the specious present,” Henri Bergson’s doctrines pertaining to “inner evolution,” “inner time” and “involuntary memory,” Sigmund Freud’s theories of “the unconscious mind” and “repressed sexual instincts,” and Carl Gustav Jung’s concepts of “the personal unconscious” and “the collective unconscious,” to name only the major influences.
William James and the Stream of Consciousness
It was William James (1842-1910), the American philosopher and psychologist, who set the ball in motion with his new theory that thoughts are not static and separate but are always flowing like a river in the human consciousness. His analysis of the nature of consciousness in his Principles of Psychology, published in 1890, opened new avenues to many a writer in his perception of the human psyche.
James perceived consciousness as an entity and outlined certain features as its essential qualities. He concluded that human thought has five characteristics: 1, Every thought tends to be a part of personal consciousness. 2, Within each personal consciousness thought is always changing. 3, Within each personal consciousness thought is sensibly continuous. 4, It always appears to deal with objects independent of itself. 5, It is interested in some parts of these objects to the exclusion of others, and welcomes or rejects — chooses from among them, in a word. He called it “the stream of thought” and compared it to the flow of a river: “thought is continuous and it is nothing joined: it flows.”
Henri Bergson’s Philosophy of Time
William James’s theories were complemented by the “creative evolution” concept of Henri Bergson (1859-1941), the French philosopher. He created a revolution in the history of philosophy with his theories of la duree, memorie involuntary and élan Vital, which have also played a determinative role in the evolution of the stream of consciousness technique. His contribution to literature brought him the coveted Nobel Prize for literature in 1927.
Bergson’s stress on inner reality led him to postulate certain new theories about “duration” and “consciousness.” This division of time into Duree or inner time and “clock time” or mechanical time is necessary to comprehend the flow of life. Another important concept in Bergson’s philosophy which has contributed significantly to the stream of consciousness technique is his distinction between memorie voluntaire and memoire involuntaire. Memorie voluntaire or the “voluntary memory” is the source of intellectualized ways of thinking, whereas memorie involuntaire or involuntary memory is the product of instinct.
Freud and Jung
The figure of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) looms large in Twentieth century literature. The influence of Freud is discernible in all genres of all literatures of the twentieth century all over the world. In his study of the human psyche, Freud divided the human consciousness into three layers: the conscious, the unconscious and the preconscious. Freud developed the doctrine that adult human behavior is the consequence of certain vital childhood experiences which lie suppressed in the unconscious mind.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was an associate of Freud in his psychoanalytical experiments but later broke away with him. Jung’s important contribution to literature is his theories of “the personal unconscious” and “the collective unconscious.” The collective unconscious is the result of the experiences of mankind as a whole which transcends the barriers of time, race and religion, forming a substratum in the individual’s consciousness.
Conclusion
The above observation throws light on the impact of the various influences on fiction which resulted in the origin of the stream of consciousness technique. William James’s concepts of the stream of consciousness and specious present and Bergson’s theories of vital impetus, inner time and involuntary memory have contributed to the original and development of the stream of consciousness technique in a big way. The new writers — Marcel Proust and Edouard Dujardin in France, Dorothy Richardson, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf in England, followed by William Faulkner in America — instead of looking around for subject matter, turned within, making the inner life of man as their principal theme, as a direct result of these new theories and findings.