In literature, psychological fiction (also psychological realism) is a narrative genre that emphasizes interior
characterization
Characterization or characterisation is the representation of persons (or other beings or creatures) in narrative and dramatic works. The term character development is sometimes used as a synonym. This representation may include direct methods l ...
and
motivation to explore the spiritual, emotional, and mental lives of the
characters
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
. The mode of narration examines the reasons for the behaviors of the character, which propel the
plot and explain the
story
Story or stories may refer to:
Common uses
* Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events)
** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting
* Story (American English), or storey (British ...
. Psychological realism is achieved with deep explorations and explanations of the mental states of the character's inner person, usually through
narrative modes such as
stream of consciousness and
flashbacks.
Early examples
''
The Tale of Genji'' by
Lady Murasaki
was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of '' The Tale of Genji,'' widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between about ...
, written in 11th-century Japan, was considered by
Jorge Luis Borges to be a psychological novel. French theorists
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...
and
Félix Guattari, in ''
A Thousand Plateaus
''A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: link=no, Mille plateaux) is a 1980 book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. It is the second and final volume of their collaborativ ...
'', evaluated the 12th-century
Arthurian
King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...
author
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes (Modern ; fro, Crestien de Troies ; 1160–1191) was a French poet and trouvère known for his writing on Arthurian subjects, and for first writing of Lancelot, Percival and the Holy Grail. Chrétien's works, including '' ...
' ''
Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart'' and ''
Perceval, the Story of the Grail
''Perceval, the Story of the Grail'' (french: Perceval ou le Conte du Graal) is the unfinished fifth verse romance by Chrétien de Troyes, written by him in Old French in the late 12th century. Later authors added 54,000 more lines in what are kn ...
'' as early examples of the style of the psychological novel.
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ...
's ''
The Red and the Black'' and
Madame de La Fayette's ''
The Princess of Cleves'' are considered the first precursors 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
In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period. In the ...
'' (1890), ''
Mysteries'' (1892), ''
Pan'' (1894) and ''
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seyche ...
'' (1898).
Notable examples
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
''Crime and Punishment'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Преступление и наказание, Prestupléniye i nakazániye, prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪje ɪ nəkɐˈzanʲɪje) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...
''.
In the literature of the United States,
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
,
Patrick McGrath,
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' (194 ...
, and
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and interior designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray ...
are considered "major contributor
to the practice of psychological realism."
Subgenres
Psychological thriller
A subgenre of the
thriller
Thriller may refer to:
* Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television
** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre
Comics
* ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...
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 the
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
and
detective fiction genres.
[Christopher Pittard, Blackwell Reference]
Psychological Thrillers
Accessed November 3, 2013, "...characteristics of the genre as “a dissolving sense of reality; reticence in moral pronouncements; obsessive, pathological characters; the narrative privileging of complex, tortured relationships” ( Munt 1994)..."
Psychological horror
A subgenre of the
horror 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.
Psychological drama
A subgenre of drama films with psychological elements, which focuses upon the emotional, mental, and psychological development of characters in a dramatic work.
''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (1975) and ''
Requiem for a Dream'' (2000), both based on novels, are notable examples of this subgenre. ''
Taxi Driver'' (1976) and ''
The Wrestler'' (2008) are original psychological drama films.
Psychological science fiction
A genre with films that are considered dramas or thrillers occurring in a science fiction setting. Often the focus is on the character's inner struggle dealing with political or technological forces. ''
A Clockwork Orange'' (1971) is a notable examples of this genre.
References
Further reading
* George M. Johnson. Dynamic Psychology in Modernist British Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, U.K., 2006.
{{Authority control
Literary genres