Stream of Consciousness and Interior Monologue Techniques in Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu and Mrs Dalloway

Abstract

Modernism is a movement seen in arts, literature, music and architecture in Europe and the USA at the beginning of the twentieth century. In this study, Peyami Safa’s Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu, from Turkish Literature and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, from English Literature are compared and contrasted in respect to modernist tools of stream of consciousness and interior monologue techniques. The main motivation behind this research is that the stories in both novels are narrated strikingly in a similar way which is through the main characters’ thoughts. On the other hand, differences in narrative techniques in both novels are also striking. In Dokuzuncu Hariciye Koğuşu, stream of consciousness is present in the apogee of fits that the sick hero suffers; however, in Mrs Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway’s inner conflicts are presented in the form of interior monologue which is a subtler and refined way of emphasising the inner world of the main character.