Free indirect discourse
Etymology
A calque of the French "style indirect libre" (also the German "erlebte Rede"). The technique is central to Austen, Flaubert, and Woolf; the English term entered critical use in the twentieth century.
noun phrase · /free in-dih-REKT DIS-kors/
A narrative style that renders a character’s thoughts in the third person while keeping their own voice and viewpoint.
What it names
The sleight of hand behind modern fiction — the way a narrator slips into a character’s idiom without quotation marks, blurring who is speaking.
Example
In free indirect discourse the line "Really, was he going to be late again?" belongs to the character’s exasperation, though no one is quoted.
Related idea
Distinct from stream of consciousness, which pours out a mind’s raw, unmediated flow; free indirect discourse keeps the narrator present, merely coloring the prose with the character’s voice.