Final answer:
The first proper use of the stream-of-consciousness technique is attributed to James Joyce, particularly in his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Step-by-step explanation:
The stream-of-consciousness technique in literature refers to a narrative mode that presents the thoughts and feelings of a character as they occur, often without the logical organization found in traditional writing styles.
While several prominent authors employed aspects of this technique in their work, it is widely acknowledged that the first proper use of stream-of-consciousness was by James Joyce in his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Joyce's representation of the inner states and consciousness of his characters was a key moment in the evolution of modernist literature.
Similar approaches to narrative can be seen in the works of other modernist writers such as Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust, who created literature focusing more on the characters' inner lives than on external events.
Gertrude Stein and Faulkner also experimented with narrative form and content. However, it is Joyce's intricate and elaborate style in Ulysses that truly epitomized the stream-of-consciousness method, drawing readers into the complex web of thoughts and sensations experienced by his characters.