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 developed into external action. The psychological novel is not content to state what happens but goes on to explain the motivation of this action. In such a work of fiction, the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the characters are of equal or greater interest than the external action of the narrative. In a psychological novel the emotional reactions and internal states of the characters are influenced by and in turn trigger external events in a meaningful symbiosis. 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 "modernism," there is no deliberate effort to fragment the prose or compel the reader to interpret the text.
The emphasis on the inner life of characters, which marks Psychological novel, is a fundamental element of a vast body of fiction: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is perhaps the prime early example of it in dramatic form. Although an overtly psychological approach is found among the earliest English novels, such as Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740), which is told from the heroine’s point of view, and Laurence Sterne’s introspective first-person narrative Tristram Shandy (1759–67), the psychological novel reached its full potential only in the 20th century. Its development coincided with the growth of psychology and the discoveries of Sigmund...