sentimentality

Sentimentality refers to an excessive expression or appeal to emotion, especially tenderness, pity, nostalgia, or sweetness, often at the expense of nuance or rational analysis. It can be a stylistic tendency in literature, film, and everyday speech, and the term is frequently used pejoratively to signal artificial or oversimplified feeling.

Historically, the word has roots in early modern English usage and in 18th-century sentimental philosophy, which elevated sympathy as a basis for ethical judgment. In literature and drama, sentimental works aim to evoke compassion to promote virtue or social reform; later critics associated the mode with melodrama and cliché.

Common features include simplified emotional cues, idealized or suffering characters, conventional plot devices, sentimental music, and a direct moralizing tone. Sentimentality often relies on nostalgia and overt pathos, with feeling invoked to elicit a quick emotional response rather than sustained interpretation.

Critics argue that sentimentality can obscure complexity, manipulate the audience, or substitute feeling for analysis. Proponents note that it can humanize issues, foster empathy, and mobilize action. The boundary between sincere emotion and calculated sentimentality is frequently disputed.

Related concepts include mawkishness, pathos, nostalgia, and sentimental virtue. Some creators seek to reduce sentimentality by emphasizing specific, ordinary details, moral ambiguity, and character development, thereby balancing affect with realism.