Definition
- "An important 18th-century term designating a kind of
sensitivity or responsiveness that is both aesthetic and moral,
showing a capacity to feel both for others' sorrows and for
beauty." (Oxford Ditctionary of Literary Terms)
- referred to susceptibility to emotional impressions, especially
to tender feelings
- the feelings may be one's own or those of others
- pleasant as well as painful feelings can trigger sensibility,
which led to oxymorons like "the luxury of grief"
- also a concept and mood of 18th c. culture
Development of the term
- first became prominent in the 18th c.
- before the mid 18th c. it is rare and only found in medical or
philosophical contexts
- becomes frequent in literary criticism after 1735 and is soon joined by its synonym "sentimentality"
- the adjective sentimental dates from 1749
- in the 19th c. the two terms move apart and "sentimentality" acquires its modern pejorative connotation
- the adjective "sensible" also changes its meaning, loses its link to sensibility and keeps only the meaning
"endowed with good sense"
- in the 20th c. the term returned to literary criticism, with a much wider meaning
- for the modern critic T. S. Eliot the term was simply a name for the artistic faculty found in every poet