| Psychological Fiction | |
|---|---|
| Subgenres | |
| Psychological thriller, psychological horror, psychological drama, psychological science fiction |
In literature,psychological fiction (alsopsychological realism) is a narrative genre that emphasizes interiorcharacterization andmotivation to explore the spiritual, emotional, and mental lives of itscharacters. The mode of narration examines the reasons for the behaviours of the character, which propel theplot and explain thestory.[1] Psychological realism is achieved with deep explorations and explanations of the mental states of the character's inner person, usually throughnarrative modes such asstream of consciousness andflashbacks.[2]
The psychological novel has a rich past in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works ofMme de Lafayette, theAbbé 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]
Yingying's Biography byYuan Zhen, written in 9th-centuryTang China, is a pioneering work of psychological fiction in the form of a short story (chuanqi).The Tale of Genji byLady Murasaki, written in 11th-century Japan, was and is considered by many, includingJorge Luis Borges,[4] as the first full-length psychological novel. French theoristsGilles Deleuze andFélix Guattari, inA Thousand Plateaus, evaluated the 12th-centuryArthurian authorChrétien de Troyes'Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart andPerceval, the Story of the Grail as early examples of the style of the psychological novel.[5] Another early example is the Portuguese pastoral romanceMenina e Moça (1554) byBernardim Ribeiro.
Stendhal'sThe Red and the Black andMadame de La Fayette'sThe Princess of Cleves are considered the first precursors of the psychological novel.[6] The modern psychological novel originated, according toThe Encyclopedia of the Novel, primarily in the works of Nobel laureateKnut Hamsun – in particular,Hunger (1890),Mysteries (1892),Pan (1894) andVictoria (1898).[7]
One of the greatest writers of the genre wasFyodor 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 notablyThe Brothers Karamazov andCrime and Punishment.
In the literature of the United States,Henry James,Patrick McGrath,Arthur Miller, andEdith Wharton are considered "major contributor[s] to the practice of psychological realism."[8]
A subgenre of thethriller and psychological novel genres, emphasizing the inner mind and mentality of characters in a creative work. Because of its complexity, the genre often overlaps and/or incorporates elements of mystery, drama, action, slasher, and horror — often psychological horror. It bears similarities to theGothic anddetective fiction genres.[9]
A subgenre of thehorror and psychological novel genres that relies on the psychological, emotional and mental states of characters to generate horror. On occasions, it overlaps with the psychological thriller subgenre to enhance the story suspensefully.
A subgenre of thedrama and psychological novel genres, focuses upon the emotional, mental, and psychological development of characters in a dramatic work.One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) andRequiem for a Dream (2000), both based on novels, are notable examples of this subgenre.[10]
Psychological science fiction refers to works that focus is on the character's inner struggle dealing with political or technological forces.A Clockwork Orange (1971) is a notable example of this genre.[11][12]
[The Tale of Genji, as translated byArthur 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 calledThe Tale of Genji.
When the novel began, with Chrétien de Troyes, for example, the essential character that would accompany it over the entire course of its history was already there: The knight of the novel of courtly love spends his time forgetting his name, what he is doing, what people say to him, he doesn't know where he is going or to whom he is speaking, he is continually drawing a line of absolute deterritorialization, but also losing his way, stopping, and falling into black holes. [...] Open Chrétien de Troyes to any page and you will find a catatonic knight seated on his steed, leaning on his lance, waiting, seeing the face of his loved one in the landscape; you have to hit him to make him respond. Lancelot, in the presence of the queen's white face, doesn't notice his horse plunge into the river; or he gets into a passing cart and it turns out to be the cart of disgrace.
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), andVictoria (1898).
