The philosophical novel is a genre of the novel. In such novels a significant portion of the work is generally devoted to philosophical questions and discussions. These subjects may be the role and characteristics of society, the purpose of life, customs, the place of art in human life, or the role of experience and reasons in the development of knowledge. The discussion of these questions is conducted within the framework of fictional events. A subgenre of this genre is the "novel of ideas," which may address subjects similar to science fiction and to utopian and dystopian fiction.
Donald Pizer argued that "the naming of the novel of ideas, the fictionalizing of its ideas, is a special event in literature," and that for this reason philosophical novels have a distinct place in literature.
Examples
There is no universally accepted definition of the philosophical novel; however, certain works such as the following have played a role in the history and development of this genre. Some examples of novels written in this genre are given below:
Sources
- Turkish Wikipedia: tr.wikipedia.org
- TDV Encyclopedia of Islam: islamansiklopedisi.org.tr