Stream-of-Consciousness Technique In The Sound And The Fury

William Faulkner, the most important and the leading figure of the American Southern writers, is a great and successful avant-garde experimenter in modern literary techniques. His greatest contribution to modernist literature is his technical innovation in novel writing, most notably his development of the stream of consciousness technique. As an important part of literary methods, the stream of consciousness technique has been applied by many well-known modernist novelists. The stream of consciousness novels stress on the inner experience of the characters and reveal their feelings, thoughts, and actions, following an associative rather than a logical sequence, without comments by the author. Faulkner's use of stream of consciousness technique is in a perfect way. As one of his most innovative novels, The Sound and the Fury is usually considered to be the first stream of consciousness novel in American literature. It tells the history of the decline and fall into social and moral decay of one of the Southern aristocratic family, the Compsons, in which his writing techniques come to perfection.This thesis analyzes several fictional methods in this novel which concern the stream of consciousness technique, including multiple points of view, interior monologue and free association. Taking examples from the fiction, the reader will have an idea of the features of each method, and how Faulkner depicts his characters'inner world through the manipulation of these methods. With the wide use of stream of consciousness technique, Faulkner succeeds in revealing the content and process of human consciousness to the reader. His ingenious employment of this technique serves the theme of the novel: the decay and deterioration of the Compson family and the Southern aristocracy. Not surprisingly, he is admired as a master of stream of consciousness novel.In a word, The Sound and the Fury is a typical stream of consciousness novel. This thesis studies the application of three main stream of consciousness techniques in the text in three parts: multiple points of view, interior monologue and free association. The stream of consciousness technique endows special charm on The Sound and the Fury. And Faulkner's experimental spirit will encourage later generations forever.