The trends of Stream of Consciousness Technique in William Faulkner's Novels

Abstract

This paper aimed to find out the use of stream of consciousness technique in the following novels: "The Sound and the Fury" and "As I lay dying" and "Absalom, Absalom". Faulkner was an American modernist author. He has used this literary technique in his three novels; He reflected the trends of stream of consciousness in the analysis of characters. These trends present Faulkner's ability to translate unspoken thoughts of unorganized succession of images, to reflect fluid rambling of the mind's conversation with itself. This technique enabled Faulkner to focus on the nature of psychological communication and to present the characters' impressions and to describe the world which those characters inhabit. Faulkner concerned with the human psyche to portray a character in a different style with specific psychological depth. He focused on the psychological content of the character to present its inner life. He presented the trend of internal struggle to penetrate feelings and emotions of characters and explore their attitudes which formed their internal world. Stream of consciousness tended to transfer ideas and feelings inside the character's mind to encourage a reader to live with the character deeply. It found out the merits of human psyche to reveal the character's analysis in psychological style. Stream of consciousness tended to find out the psychological spaces and dimensions inside the character.