Slices of Pain: Seeing Through the Eyes of Characters in Literature Using Socio-Psychological Prism

Abstract

Anchored on the field theory of Kurt Lewin and functionalism of Emile Durkheim, this study brought to the fore some slices of pain as reflected in six select novels from Asia and Africa. This literary investigation owes its magnitude and significance in appreciating literature through the prism of the sciences - psychology and sociology. The study attempted to describe characters in terms of their environment and their psychological needs, identified slices of pain that confronted them and evaluated how select influences affected them. The researcher made use of the descriptive-analytical research design to explicate qualitative data from the select novels. The study produced psychological fields of major characters in the novels. How the characters deal with pain was influenced by the multitude of processes in their physical or social world as indicated by the boundary zones of their life spaces, their cognitive structure, their ways of perceiving and some processes outside themselves. The major characters were located between the positive and negative forces which were mutually exclusive. The life spaces of the individuals were influenced by the state of their needs and the effects depended on the intensity of that need and on the fluidity of the related areas of the life space. The social aspect was explained by its reflective causes in the context of social solidarity, social integration, social phenomenon, social cohesion, and their various forms. Field theory in psychology, functionalism in sociology and their underpinnings could well be incorporated in the study of literature.