sentimentalism
Overwrought feeling indulgence
Sentimentalism is excessive indulgence in emotion, particularly tender or nostalgic feelings.
The term usually carries a critical edge—suggesting emotion that's shallow, self-serving, or unearned: The film's sentimentalism undermined its serious subject matter.
In philosophy and literature, sentimentalism names the 18th-century movement that valued feeling and sympathy as moral guides.
Excessively tearful sentiment
- schmaltzPoultry fat or sentimentality
- sappinessExcessive maudlin sentiment
- tearjerkerEmotionally manipulative entertainment
- weepyInclined to cry
overwrought · saccharine · cloying · melodrama · bathos · treacly · mawkish · overemotional
Emotion-centered artistic movement
- DickensianGrimly poor, socially unjust
- VictorianOf a prim era
- melodramaSensational, emotionally overwrought drama
- penny dreadfulCheap Victorian crime serial
weepie · gothic · Hallmark · bodice-ripper · soap opera · potboiler · pathos · bathos
Recalling past experiences
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- bygoneOf earlier times
yesteryear · homesickness · bittersweet · retrospection · golden age · rose-tinted · sepia-toned · memento
Classical economics founder
- subjectivismBelief truth is personal
- pathosPity-evoking quality
- affectivityCapacity for feeling
- sympathyCompassionate understanding of others
fellow-feeling · benevolence · sensibility · eighteenth-century · Enlightenment
Tasteless, garish art
- cheeseFermented milk solid
- cornCereal grown on cobs
- hokumContrived sentimental rubbish
- tritenessState of being overused
banality · cheapness · superficiality · insincerity · manipulation · exploitation · self-indulgence · wallowing
Pining from romantic longing
- infatuationShort-lived intense attraction
- ardorIntense emotional warmth
- swooningLosing consciousness briefly
- piningAching with prolonged desire
mooning · lovelorn · starry-eyed · besotted · amorous · enamored · courtly love · devotion
maudlin
Excessively tearful sentiment
- schmaltzPoultry fat or sentimentality
- sappinessExcessive maudlin sentiment
- tearjerkerEmotionally manipulative entertainment
weepy · overwrought · saccharine · cloying · melodrama · bathos · treacly · mawkish · overemotional · softhearted
Romanticism
Emotion-centered artistic movement
- DickensianGrimly poor, socially unjust
- VictorianOf a prim era
- melodramaSensational, emotionally overwrought drama
penny dreadful · weepie · gothic · Hallmark · bodice-ripper · soap opera · potboiler · pathos · bathos · purple prose
reminiscence
Recalling past experiences
- yearningIntense prolonged craving
- wistfulnessTender sadness for absence
- longingIntense, persistent desire
bygone · yesteryear · homesickness · bittersweet · retrospection · golden age · rose-tinted · sepia-toned · memento · keepsake
Adam Smith
Classical economics founder
- subjectivismBelief truth is personal
- pathosPity-evoking quality
- affectivityCapacity for feeling
sympathy · fellow-feeling · benevolence · sensibility · eighteenth-century · Enlightenment
kitsch
Tasteless, garish art
triteness · banality · cheapness · superficiality · insincerity · manipulation · exploitation · self-indulgence · wallowing · overwrought
lovesick
Pining from romantic longing
- infatuationShort-lived intense attraction
- ardorIntense emotional warmth
- swooningLosing consciousness briefly
pining · mooning · lovelorn · starry-eyed · besotted · amorous · enamored · courtly love · devotion · adoration
- literaturebooks, book, fiction, poetry, stories
- moral philosophymoral philosophy, moral judgment, moral reasoning, moral principles, moral conduct
- literary conceptsromanticism, realism, modernism, symbolism, aestheticism
- Romantic LiteraturePride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Emma
- 18th-century literaturegothic novel, heroic couplet, mock-heroic, neoclassicism, picaresque
- Latin American RomanticismMaria, Amalia, nature imagery, tragic heroines
sentimentalismstoicism
Uncomplaining acceptance of difficulty
hard-heartedness · coldness · emotional detachment · restraint · callousness
sentimentalismcynicism
Distrust of human sincerity
hardheadedness · rationalism · pragmatism · realism · skepticism
sentimentalismnaturalism
Worldview excluding the supernatural
realism · brutalism · minimalism · austerity · social realism
sentimentality, sentimentalist, sentimentalize, sentimentalized, sentimentalists, sentimentalizing