18th and 19th Century Literature
Sentimentalism is a literary and philosophical movement that emphasizes emotional responses and individual feelings as fundamental to understanding human experience. It advocates for the importance of emotions over reason, highlighting the capacity for empathy, love, and compassion in shaping human relationships and moral values. This focus on personal emotion connects deeply with the rise of individualism, the influence of Enlightenment thinkers, and the evolution of the epistolary novel format, which often explores characters' inner emotional lives through letters and personal correspondence.
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