" A story that focuses strongly on the emotions and the emotional relationships between the characters, rather than on the 'outside' plot they're moving through, is...what?"

Er. . . it's literature. No really, it is.

This sort of emphasis on the interior life of characters only seems unusual because it is cropping up in genre fiction. The thing is that really well-read and smart writers are invading various genres and they aren't afraid to bring the good tools from the literary toolbox along with them.