Breaking New Ground: The Psycholiterary Approach to Fiction

Abstract

How can the novel, devoid of real existence, generate real feelings in readers? The answer lies in a new approach: psycholiterary analysis. One of a range of multidisciplinary approaches, this articulates the osmosis occurring between the author’s psyche and the reader’s. Opting for an approach that takes aesthetic enjoyment into account, Vernay focuses on various philosophical positions, and on theories of the psyche. He also develops his argument about the role of emotions in literary interpretation, and about the conception and reception of the literary work. Finally, he integrates neuroscientific advances into his approach to analyze the behavior of “creators,” and to reconcile the professional reader, attentive to various novelistic techniques, with amateur readers who abandon themselves more readily to the pleasure of the text.