Stream of Consciousness:
A narrative technique that relates the continuous flow of thoughts and images in the mental process of a character. It is a mode of narrative that records the nonstop impressions of a conscious mind, without maintaining chronology in time and space. In a conventional narrative method the plot line advances along the time sequence and a coherent structure is build up. But in stream-of-consciousness mode of narrative, the writer follows the flow of a character's thought process in which countless feelings, observations, sensations or reflections pass endlessly, often jumping from one to the other, For this reason, sequence in time and space is ignored and traditional linkers are.not used in it. The term was first used by William James in his book, The Principles of Psychology (1890), The stream-of-consciousness has been used among many others, in James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), William Faulkner's Sound and the Fury (1929), and Virginia Woolf's Waves (1931). Stream of consciousness is also
called "interior monologue".
Subjectivity:
A mode of expression in which information about the writer's personal life finds place. In this type of writing, the writer's likes and dislikes are given importance. It is opposite to objectivity. For example, in Wordsworth's Prelude, one finds that Wordsworth, in his childhood, stole birds, eggs and a boat for childish pleasure. His poems also reveal that he loved nature and believed that God was present in nature. So, Wordsworth was a subjective poet. But Shakespeare was an objective dramatist because he, in his plays, did never directly say what he was, what he liked or what he disliked.
Symbol:
A thing which stands for something else. It is basically an image which, by virtue of recurrent uses, assumes its special meaning. Thus, a rose stands for beauty, a dove for peace, a V-sign for victory, etc. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne "A" is a symbol for adultery.
