Sensationalism

sensationalism noun

sen·​sa·​tion·​al·​ism sen-ˈsā-sh(ə-)nə-ˌli-zəm 

1: empiricism that limits experience as a source of knowledge to sensation or sense perceptions

2: the use or effect of sensational subject matter or treatment (Mirriam Webster)

In literature, sensationalism is a kind of writing attempting to evoke strong emotional or physical reactions like shock, fear, desire, or horror. In the 18th and 19th centuries, examples would be Gothic novels like Dracula and Frankenstein and Victorian novels like The Woman in White, known as a "sensation novel." These works toed the line between moral and forbidden, the domestic and the violent. Sensational literature drew on the cheap print and rise of mass literacy to make emotion a public commodity.

Sensationalism in literature can be seen as emotion turned into entertainment, an aesthetic and psychological experience told through a story.

Before sensationalism was literary it was a theory of knowledge, especially in Enlightenment philosophy. Philosopher John Locke argued that all human knowledge originates in sensation, that the mind is a tabula rosa (a blank slate) written on by sensory experience. This theory suggested that emotion, imagination, and moral feeling all grow out of the body’s sensory encounters with the world. Later, Romantic and Gothic writers absorbed this idea. They used vivid sensory writing to explore how experience shapes consciousness and how intense sensations reveal truth about the self. Literary sensationalism grew directly out of philosophical sensationalism.

Modern psychology confirms what these writers intuitively grasped: strong sensory and emotional experiences enhance memory and engagement. When readers encounter emotionally charged scenes (danger, desire, pain, suspense) their amygdala and limbic system activate, heightening attention and empathy. This “arousal” effect helps the reader process the narrative as if they are the ones living it. It blurs the line between fiction and bodily experience. In this way, sensational fiction works almost like a psychological simulation, it allows readers to experience extreme emotions safely, within imagination.

Sensationalism in literature grew from sensationalism in philosophy: from the belief that knowledge and emotion arise from the senses. Psychologically, it engages the body and the brain together: by triggering emotional arousal, it deepens attention, memory, and empathy. What began as a theory of perception became a literary movement that explores how feeling is knowing.

SENSATIONALISM Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster