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Is stream of consciousness different from interior monologue and free indirect discourse?
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Yes, stream of consciousness is different from interior monologue and free indirect discourse. Stream of consciousness presents a flow of thoughts without organization, while interior monologue compiles rational and organized thoughts. Free indirect discourse involves a third-person narrative that conveys a character's thoughts without direct quotes or phrases indicating speech, blending the narrator's and character's voices.
Free indirect discourse refers to the way the discourse of a character is told in a narrative. Discourse is "indirect" when it is told by a narrator and not quoted directly from the character; it is "free" when there are no phrases like "said that" or "thought that" which would indicate the subsequent words are those of a character.
However, narrative discourse does not have to be communicated to another character. This would be the case with an internal monologue, because the only recipient of this discourse is the narratee, the narratological name for the recipient of a narrative (opposite the narrator). The monologue is not a speech; there is no audience within the story.
The same would be true for a stream of consciousness, because there are no characters who would serve as witnesses. The difference would be that if the narrator is a character in the story,...
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she could be the recipient of her own internal monologue, because she could be talking to herself. But a narrator in a story cannot be the recipient of a stream of consciousness, since it is the textual representation of something which no one witnesses, not even the character doing the thinking.
The interior monologue is a technique for narration that was first used in Les Lauriers sont coupés by Édouard Dujardin in 1887. It is a compilation of thoughts and memories, wishes, ideas, and assumptions that the character has reunited throughout the different events of his or her life. The thoughts are very rational, and the thoughts occur in order and with more organization than in the stream of consciousness. The idea behind the interior monologue is to dramatize a conflict using thoughts.
Stream of consciousness is not the same as interior monologue. Stream of consciousness is a combination of thoughts and reactions presented as a flow of thoughts, and not in the organized and rational way that the interior monologue occurs. The term was first coined by William James in the thesis"The Principles of Psychology". As such, the stream is more of a manifestation of what is going on inside our minds much more than an attempt at analyzing facts. It is literally described as follows:
"It is nothing joined..it flows. A 'river' or a 'stream' is the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter let's call it the tream of thought, consciousness, or subjective life"
In contrast to the inner monologue, the character will wax compelled and reactive to a series of disjointed thoughts and memories that cause deep emotion. The onset of these emotional memories can occur at any moment, and the rules of grammar do not apply. There is no need for rationalization or organization. Think "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall".
Free, indirect discourse is a third person narrative where the third person embodies the thoughts and emotions of the main character. This omniscient subjective narrator gets in and out of the consciousness of the character who is having the epiphany.The narrative, being third person, is not directed at anyone in particular; it is sort of thrown to the air. Yet, all the thoughts and emotions are expressed exactly as the character is supposed t be feeling them. According to Pascal (1977), it is a 'dual voice' where a third person narrator and the main character's focal point of view combine.