Psychological novel

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Psychological novel

A psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose

Prose

Prose is writing that resembles everyday Speech communication. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward"....
fiction

Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motive

Motivation

Motivation is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behavior. The term is generally used for human motivation but, theoretically, it can be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well....
s, 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

Fictional character

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A psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose

Prose

Prose is writing that resembles everyday Speech communication. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward"....
fiction

Fiction

Motivation

Fictional character

A character is any person, persona, identity, or entity that exists in a The arts. The process of conveying information about characters in fiction is called characterisation....
and characterization are more than usually important, 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.

The Tale of Genji
The Tale of Genji

is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early eleventh century, around the peak of the Heian Period....
, written in 11th century Japan and often considered to be the first novel, has been considered the first psychological novel. In the west, the origins of the psychological novel can be traced as far back as Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italy author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanism and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular....
's 1344 La Fiammetta; that is before the term psychology

Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
was coined. Another avant la lettre example is Don Quixote de la Mancha
Don Quixote

, fully titled is an early novel written by Spain author Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes created a fictional origin for the story based upon a manuscript by the invented Moors historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli....
by Miguel Cervantes.

The first rise of the psychological novel as a genre is said to have started with the sentimental novel

Sentimental novel

The sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th century in literature which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, Sentimentalism , and sensibility....
of which Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson

Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century England writer and Printer . He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela , Clarissa and The History of Sir Charles Grandison ....
's Pamela is a prime example.

In French literature, Stendhal

Stendhal

Henri-Marie Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century France writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme ....
's The Red and the Black
The Red and the Black

Le Rouge et le Noir is a novel by Stendhal, published in 1830. The title has been translated into English variously as Scarlet and Black, Red and Black, and The Red and the Black....
is often called an early psychological novel. Madame de La Fayette's The Princess of Cleves
La Princesse de Clèves

La Princesse de Cl?ves is a France novel, regarded by many as one of the first European novels and a classic of its era. Its writer is most often held to be Madame de La Fayette....
, dating back to the 17th century, is also considered an early precursor of the psychological novel. Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun, born Knud Pedersen was a Norwegian literature. He was considered by Isaac Bashevis Singer to be the "father of modern literature", and by Haakon VII of Norway to be Norway's soul....
's debut-novel Hunger
Hunger (novel)

Hunger is a novel by the Norway author Knut Hamsun and was published in its final form in 1890. Parts of it had been published anonymously in the Denmark magazine Ny Jord in 1888....
is widely recognized as the most significant psychological novel.