Sentimentalism

The sentimentalism is a state of mind in the European culture of the late 18th and early 19th century . The focus is on man and human nature and the unadulterated, genuine feelings (instead of the mind ).

classification

Sentimentalism can be seen as a counter-movement to classicism , but also as a component of the culture and mentality of the late 18th century that was complementary to belief in reason .

As a state of mind or supra-individual mentality, sentimentalism differs in principle from the literary epoch of sensitivity . Nor is it to be confused with the philosophical position of sensualism .

Manifestations of sentimentalism

Sentimentalism is particularly manifest in certain cultural practices and phenomena. In this regard, for example, the reception attitude towards novels , plays or paintings based on an emotional reaction , the letter culture of the time , which placed great value on expressions of feeling and emotional sensitivity, or the general tendency towards a culture of tears.

Literary representatives of sentimentalism

The writer and historian Nikolai Michailowitsch Karamsin is one of the Russian sentimentalists (approx. 1790–1820) .

Among the French authors whose tendencies towards sentimentalism (French: “sensibilité”) can be identified include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre .

Sentimentalism as a Research Subject

Sources for researching such cultural practices and mentalities include literary or other artistic works of the epoch as well as correspondence , memoirs , reviews and other documents.

Sentimentalism is a phenomenon that goes beyond the purely literary perspective and also has cultural studies , the history of ideas, or sociological perspectives.

See also

• Sensibility (literary epoch)
• Sensualism (philosophical position)

literature

• Aurnhammer, Achim (ed.). Emotional culture in the bourgeois Enlightenment . Tübingen: Niemeyer (early modern times, 98), 2004. ISBN 3-484-36598-6
• Baasner, Frank. The term “sensibilité” in the 18th century: the rise and fall of an ideal . Heidelberg: Winter (Studia Romanica, 69), 1988. ISBN 3-533-03965-X
• Bell, Michael. Sentimentalism, ethics and the culture of feeling . Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000. ISBN 0-333-72110-1
• Herrlinger, Wolfgang. Sentimentalism and Post-sentimentalism: Studies in the English Novel by the Mid-19th Century . Tübingen: Niemeyer (Studies in English Philology, 26), 1987. ISBN 3-484-45026-6
• McGann, Jerome J. The Poetics of Sensibility: a Revolution in Literary Style . Oxford: Clarendon, 1996. ISBN 0-19-818370-4