Sentimentality
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Sentimentality is on one hand a literary device that is used to induce an emotional response disproportionate to the situation, and thus to substitute heightened and generally uncritical feeling for normal ethical and intellectual judgments, and on the other it is a heightened reader response that is willing to invest previously prepared emotions to respond disproportionately to a literary situation.
Sentimentality applies feelings in inappropriate situations. The sentimental fallacy is an ancient rhetorical device that attributes to the forces of nature human emotions, such as mourning or anger. Sentimental democracy applies the principles of democracy in situations where they are inappropriate, such as voting on whether Pluto is a planet, or conversely applies inappropriate depth of response to intrinsically neutral events, such as a first democratic election
[edit] References
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas: "Victorian Sensibility and Sentiment"
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