Psychological Realism in 19th Century Fiction: Studies in Turgenev, Tolstoy, Eliot and Brontë

Product Description


This book is a study of psychological realism in select works from nineteenth-century fiction, namely Fathers and Sons, Anna Karenina, The Mill on the Floss, and Jane Eyre. It shows how psychoanalytic theories may be applied to illuminate various aspects of the psyches of characters in these texts. The book provides evidence that theories like John Bowlbys Attachment Theory and Karen Horneys Personality Theory can go a long way in enhancing our understanding of literary characters, the meaning of the text, its relation to its creator, and the authors psychology. As such, it brings forth a novel view of literary criticism, and will serve to convince the reader that a critical approach devoid and dismissive of the psychological aspect is incomplete and hurts literary criticism on the whole.


About the Author


Dr Debashish Sen received his Masters degree in English Literature from Mumbai University and his PhD from the Department of English of the University of Lucknow, India. He has also been a Research Scholar at the Centre de Recherche en Littérature Comparée (CRLC) of the Université Paris-Sorbonne. He has a deep interest in psychology, having extensively studied the works of Karl Abraham, Karen Horney, and John Bowlby. He specializes in nineteenth-century literature with a focus on the psychoanalytic study of novels and literary characters.