Sentimentalism is one of the literary movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The founders of this trend were several authors who brought their own traits to the theory of sentimentalism.
What is sentimentalism
In contrast to the traditional works of realist writers, who impartially describe events, sentimentalism paid special attention to the feelings of both the heroes and the author himself. This current originated in England at the beginning of the 18th century. Its founder can be considered the poet James Thomson, who wrote the poem "The Seasons". It showed the idyllic life of the villagers in the lap of nature, their simple feelings and feelings. The baton was soon picked up by other authors - Samuel Richardson, Lawrence Stern and Thomas Gray, creating sensual novels permeated with melancholy moods and lyrical digressions. So the main features of sentimentalism took shape - subjectivity in the description of events, extensive author's retreats, idealization of the main characters, focusing on feelings rather than events, the cult of morality, the predominance of feelings over reason. In Russia, sentimentalism developed in the 1890s.
Unlike Russian, European sentimentalism was characterized by edification and moralizing.
