Which narrative technique is Virginia Woolf known for using?

The story behind the answer

Virginia Woolf is celebrated for stream of consciousness, a technique that tries to capture the flow of a character’s inner thoughts, sensations, and associations in real time. In novels like Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves, narration drifts fluidly between minds, memories, and moments, often with minimal punctuation and shifting time, mirroring how we actually think.

As a central Modernist, Woolf used this style to challenge traditional plots and omniscient narration, alongside contemporaries like James Joyce and Marcel Proust. Memory tip: think “Woolf” and water—her prose moves like a stream, and she even titled a novel The Waves—making “stream of consciousness” the perfect fit.