<P> In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind . The term was coined by William James in 1890 in his The Principles of Psychology, and in 1918 the novelist May Sinclair (1863--1946) first applied the term stream of consciousness, in a literary context, when discussing Dorothy Richardson's (1873--1957) novels . Pointed Roofs (1915), the first work in Richardson's series of 13 semi-autobiographical novels titled Pilgrimage, is the first complete stream of consciousness novel published in English . However, in 1934, Richardson comments that "Proust, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf & D.R....were all using' the new method', though very differently, simultaneously". </P> <P> Stream of consciousness is a narrative device that attempts to give the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue (see below), or in connection to his or her actions . Stream - of - consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in thought and lack of some or all punctuation . Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are distinguished from dramatic monologue and soliloquy, where the speaker is addressing an audience or a third person, which are chiefly used in poetry or drama . In stream of consciousness the speaker's thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself); it is primarily a fictional device . </P>

The term stream of consciousness was first used in literary criticism in