A novel can be considered an art, and therefore it can be debated that novels break down accepted conventions as it is used to be creative and being explorative. “The application of human creative skill and imagination, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” This definition of art shows that a human being writing a novel may be creative and imaginative in his/her writing, but subconsciously that person could be placing references to reality. The definition also reveals that art links to arguably, the strongest way of knowing, emotion. As it is appreciated on a level of emotion, it can be related to our own lives and personalities, as we can learn more things about ourselves and humanity through these references.
Learning through the arts tends to be subtler as there are often references to the real world through metaphors, similes and others. This allows the reader to understand the references without being directly told what it is, and therefore allowing him/her to understand how a comparison can be made and makes our knowledge develop on whatever is being mentioned and also how our minds work. An example of this can be Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. One of the first science-fiction novels written in the early 19th Century, it broke the regular Romantic conventions of literature at the time, even though it contained some aspects of romanticism. At the time, many people learnt new aspects of human behaviour, as a new creature explores through this ‘new’ world, he discovers human anger, revenge, love and other emotions. But as the monster is not aware of what is socially acceptable, he murders people to have his vengeance.
The ways of knowing are certainly found in psychology. As psychology allows the interpretation of thoughts in the human mind and the study of mental processes and behaviour to help us understand our lives better. By interpreting the information in our minds through psychology, our perception of life and behaviour can become more focused, as we understand more about these aspects of humanity.
By analyzing our thoughts, a better comprehension of human emotions can be evolved, as they are possibly the most volatile aspects of humanity because of the obstructions they cause in our lives, learning more about emotions would definitely improve our understanding of human personalities. Reason in psychology permits scientists to understand how the human mind processes information and how that person reaches a decision. Through the analysis of reasoning, we can discover how human beings reach a decision as some people argue that you always have a choice, and by understanding how we reach that choice, we can learn a lot about one’s personality. We already understand a lot about language and communication, but if appreciate how we think of the symbols and ways of communicating we can reach a conclusion of how the human mind can use references in his/her environment to develop a way of communication.
An example of this can be found in psychiatrist and analytical psychologist, Carl Jung’s works. “The unconscious is not just evil by nature, it is also the source of the highest good: not only dark but also light, not only bestial, semi human, and demonic but superhuman, spiritual, and, in the classical sense of the word, "divine." This shows how a human’s manifestations of unconscious expression from a dream can result in a person’s beliefs and creation in religion, arts and morals. The analysis of the unconscious mind allows people to ascertain more knowledge concerning themselves and their environment, which was explored in the works of Freud and is still researched today.
However the use of ways of knowing are without a doubt found in novels. As these books are built by creative imagination of the author, and therefore can be related to reality in some way as they contain references to reality and are written from subjective experiences. Through the style of writing and the message of the novel we can learn a lot about the author’s life and personality as he/she writes about aspects of her life or human life in general. And on this note, we understand that psychological theories are created from a subjective point of view, however we do not know a lot about the researchers and what his/her intentions are and how this understanding of the human mind will help us understand more about humanity. On the other hand novels have a more humanistic appeal, and therefore more people can relate to novels as they are put into our frame of thinking. Novels can be limited in providing a view in a bigger context, as a lot of times the effect of novels on people depends on the reader’s personal experience. Nevertheless, novels are better at allowing the everyday language users, allowing us to understand the ‘logic’ of language. This was highlighted many times by the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein. “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” This shows that without complete human knowledge on language, we will never have complete knowledge on humanity.
Many linguistics professors such as Robert D. Levine have disagreed with many of Chomsky’s linguistic works. There was even a book released called The Anti-Chomsky Reader. Chomsky has been accused of “falsely denigrating other sciences to make his own work seem less inadequate.” Which would explain why this statement in favour of novels was released.
If I were applying this statement to my IB experiences, I would have to agree with this statement. Even though I do not have psychology lessons, my English A1 lessons are normally the study of novels. Books such as Frankenstein, The Wasp Factory, The Kite Runner and others do relate to this argument because I believe these novels demonstrate human life and behaviour through fictitious stories and provide an interesting scope into humanity.
In conclusion, I believe that it would be wiser to combine both, novels and scientific psychology instead of viewing them separately, as by combining them we will be able to learn even more. With the humanistic appeal of novels towards its readers, and the theoretical and scientific backing of human life and personality, we will be able to have more understanding of our own humanity.
Word Count – 1, 427
By
Kunal Gokal
Definition of ‘novel’ in the Oxford English Dictionary
Definition of ‘psychology’ in the Oxford English Dictionary
Christopher Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage
Definition of ‘art’ in the Oxford English Dictionary
Carl Jung, Paracelsus the Physician (1942)
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
