Miserabilismus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A style in art or literature that focuses insistently on poverty, wretchedness and human suffering
2. The tendency of certain artists and writers to portray hardship and despair as their central subject
3. A movement or approach in painting and fiction that dwells on the gloomy, wretched side of life

Etymology: Miserabilismus is a modern scholarly coinage rather than a word with an ancient pedigree. It was formed in Latin-style fashion from "miserabilis", "wretched" or "pitiable", the source of English "miserable", with the suffix "-ismus", the Latin form of the Greek "-ismos" that English renders as "-ism" and that marks a doctrine, movement or tendency. The result names a view or habit of dwelling on human wretchedness, a pessimistic outlook treated as a kind of creed. Because it is built from classical parts, its coinage belongs to the modern period, when scholars and critics freely assembled Latinate terms for ideas that had no older name. It is a technical-sounding word that exists mainly in learned writing, and it was made by putting familiar Latin roots together rather than inherited from any ancient author.