Psychological novel (also psychological realism) is a literary genre that emphasizes interior characterization, as well as the motives, circumstances, and internal action which is derivative from and creates external action. It is not content to state what happens but goes on to explain the motivation of this action. In the genre, character and characterization are prominent, often delving deeper into the character mentally than 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.
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Early examples
The Tale of Genji, written in 11th-century Japan, has often been considered the first psychological novel. 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).
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.
In the literature of the United States, Henry James, Patrick McGrath, Arthur Miller, and Edith Wharton are considered "major contributor[s] to the practice of psychological realism."