maudlinism

Rare.
1. a tendency in temperament to be mawkishly sentimental and tearfully emotional.
2. a degree of drunkenness characterized by mawkish emotionalism. — maudlin, adj.

maudlinism

noun

The quality or condition of being affectedly or overly emotional:

bathos, mawkishness, sentimentalism, sentimentality.

Informal: mush, mushiness, schmaltz, schmaltziness, sloppiness.

Slang: sappiness.

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References in classic literature ?

Benjamin Allen had perhaps a greater predisposition to maudlinism than he had ever known before; the cause of which malady was briefly this.

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And it is, indeed, beautifully written - touching without ever drifting towards maudlinism, detailed yet not remotely dry.