Psychological novel

A psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action. The psychological novel is not content to state what happens but goes on to explain the motivation of this action. In this type of writing character and characterization are more important than usual, and they often delve deeper into the mind of a character than novels of other genres. The psychological novel can be called a novel of the "inner man," so to say. In some cases, the stream of consciousness technique, as well as interior monologues, may be employed to better illustrate the inner workings of the human mind at work. Flashbacks may also be featured. While these three textual techniques are also prevalent in literary modernism, there is no deliberate effort to fragment the prose or compel the reader to interpret the text.

Early examples

The Tale of Genji, written in 11th-century Japan, has often been considered the first psychological novel.^[1] In the west, the origins of the psychological novel can be traced as far back as Giovanni Boccaccio's 1344 Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta; that is before the term psychology was coined.

The first rise of the psychological novel as a genre is said to have started with the sentimental novel of which Samuel Richardson's Pamela is a prime example.

In French literature, Stendhal's The Red and the Black is often called an early psychological novel. Madame de La Fayette's The Princess of Cleves, dating back to the 17th century, is also considered an early precursor of the psychological novel. The modern psychological novel originated, according to The Encyclopedia of the Novel, primarily in the works of Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun – in particular, Hunger (1890), Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894) and Victoria (1898).^[2]

Notable examples

The psychological novel has a rich past in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works of Mme de Lafayette, the Abbé Prévost, Samuel Richardson, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and many others, but it goes on being disinvented by ideologues and reinvented by their opponents, because the subtleties of psychology defy most ideologies.^[3]

One of the greatest writers of the genre was Fyodor Dostoyevsky. His novels deal strongly with ideas, and characters who embody these ideas, how they play out in real world circumstances, and the value of them, most notably The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. Another important contributor is Mikhail Lermontov with his A Hero of our Time.

In the literature of the United States, Henry James, Arthur Miller, and Edith Wharton are considered "major contributor[s] to the practice of psychological realism."^[4]

References

↑ Jorge Luis Borges, The Total Library:
[The Tale of Genji, as translated by Arthur Waley,] is written with an almost miraculous naturalness, and what interests us is not the exoticism — the horrible word — but rather the human passions of the novel. Such interest is just: Murasaki's work is what one would quite precisely call a psychological novel. ... I dare to recommend this book to those who read me. The English translation that has inspired this brief insufficient note is called The Tale of Genji.
↑ Logan, Peter Melville; George, Olakunle; Hegeman, Susan; et al., eds. (2011). "Northern Europe". The Encyclopedia of the Novel, A–Li. Blackwell Publishing. p. 583. ISBN 978-1-4051-6184-8. Retrieved 6 February 2012. The most significant novelist of the Scandinavian countries is Knut Hamsun, who almost singlehandedly created the modern psychological novel through the publication of four works that probe the human subconscious, Sult (1890, Hunger), Mysterier (1892, Mysteries), Pan (1894), and Victoria (1898).
↑ W. J. Leatherbarrow (18 July 2002). The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevskii. Cambridge University Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-521-65473-9.
↑ N. Baym, et al. Eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Shorter Seventh Edition, New York: W.W. Norton Co. 2008, p. 1697

External links

George M. Johnson. Dynamic Psychology in Modernist British Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, U.K., 2006.

Narrative

Character	Antagonist Antihero Archenemy Character arc Character's voice Characterization Deuteragonist False protagonist Focal character Foil Protagonist Stock character Supporting character Tritagonist Narrator

Plot	Action Backstory Cliché Climax Cliffhanger Conflict Deus ex machina Dialogue Dramatic structure Exposition Eucatastrophe Foreshadowing Flashback Flashforward Framing device Frame story In medias res Pace Plot device Plot twist Poetic justice Reveal Self-fulfilling prophecy Subplot Trope Kishōtenketsu

Setting	Backstory Utopia Dystopia Alternate history Fictional location city country universe

Theme	Leitmotif Metaphor Moral Motif Irony

Style	Allegory Bathos Diction Figure of speech Imagery Narrative technique Narration Stylistic device Suspension of disbelief Symbolism Tone Mode Mood

Structure	Linear narrative Interactive narration Nonlinear narrative Films Television series Types of fiction with multiple endings

Form	Epic Fable Fabliau Fairy tale Folktale Flash fiction Legend Novella Novel Parable Play Poem Screenplay Short story

Genre	Action fiction Adventure Comic Crime Docufiction Epistolary Erotic Fiction Fantasy Gothic Historical Horror Magic realism Mystery Nautical Paranoid Philosophical Picaresque Political Psychological Romance Saga Satire Science Speculative Superhero Thriller Urban Western List of writing genres

Narrator	First-person Second-person Third-person Multiple narrators Stream of consciousness Stream of unconsciousness Unreliable

Tense	Past Present Future

Related	Audience Author Creative nonfiction Fiction writing Literary theory Literary science Narratology Monomyth Rhetoric Screenwriting Storytelling

Literature portal

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/12/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.