CONCIOUSNESS & THE UNKNOWN: *Literature moving away from the concept of external action and focusing on internal thought, therefore, representing the human experience as subjective. The texts highlight and question what consciousness feels like and how to capture the flow of thoughts, memories, and emotions that reside in a character's mind and aren't directly expressed publicly. Adds intimacy to the text that the reader, or even other characters, may be able to connect with in different ways.
Edgar Allen Poe "The Man of the Crowd": (Gothic Genre) Consciousness as an observation, contains a first-person narrator that filters the setting through their own consciousness with no objective form of reality, only perception
The modern, hyperactive life of the London streets in the city create a setting that is fragmented, mysterious, and overstimulating - reflecting an industrial time/era of London.
The man reading the body language and faces of the people who pass by and anticipating their actions through psychological analysis. The man becomes obsessed with following an old man through the crowd - Never being able to know the old man represents the limits of knowing what is in the minds of others while simaltaneously acknowledging the unlimited possibilities of our own minds. "It will be vain to follow; for I shall learn no more of him."
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Henry James "The Turn of the Screw": The entire novel is filtered through the Governess's conscious mind. This is a form of unreliable narration told from a first-person perspective since the reader only knows what she sees. But the story is also told third-hand through a chain of narrators based on a manuscript written by the Governess. (Adds layers of complexity to the text)**
Gothic elements stem from the fact that the horrors of the story are
coming from the inside of the Governess's mind. For example, when the Governess "saw" Peter Quint in the tower yet no one else did. When she sees Quint again in her final scene with Miles, the reader experiences a chilling image when she refers to Quint as a "devil". The reader may also question if Miles also sees him or if the Governess is simply projecting.
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Psychological + Supernatural - Gothic horror is only internalized, not external.
- seeing Quint in the tower, yet no one else does
- interpreting the children's behavior as "corrupted."
- Consciousness is the source of terror - is it also the source of supernatural activity
Perception and Truth - no external verification of governess visions, is she hallucinating due to repression - And is what's repressed invading her conscious mind.
"Virginia Woolf, "Mrs Dalloway": A stream of consciousness that moves through the minds/experiences of multiple characters. The dialogue flows from internal to external throughout the reader's encounters with each character in the text. The amount of detail makes one think the time spans multiple days, when in reality it is only one day, and the memories/emotions have been built/made over the span of numerous years. By paying such attention to the characters internal thoughts that only the reader knows about creates a sense of initmacy between each character and the audience itself.
Mrs. Dalloway, the main female protagonist, shows lots of internal conflict with herself and how her life has turned out. It seems she feels somewhat unfulfilled; however, this is not obvious to any of the others
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Tunneling of memories - moments triggering memories -
- conversation with Peter triggering deep feelings for Clarissa
- a day containing lifetimes
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T.S. Elliot "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock": Reflecting an interior monologue within poetry that explores the anxious mind of Prufrock. There is no defined destination or reason for action, but he talks himself out of action almost as a call to inaction, paralyzed by his own consciousness.
Fragments of Prufrock's Psyche - Constantly questioning parts of himself:
Social Anxiety - "Do I Dare?"
Disappointment in life - "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."
Age - "(They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")
No logical arguement - random flow of thought is able to mimic the structure of non-linear thought, how the conscious mind actually works. Before thoughts are organized in the question "Do I dare disturb the universe?", the mind becomes a prison and prevents action.
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