objective correlative
noun
: something (such as a situation or chain of events) that symbolizes or objectifies a particular emotion and that may be used in creative writing to evoke a desired emotional response in the reader
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Saturday’s march is the objective correlative of that. 
David Zurawik, baltimoresun.com, 23 Mar. 2018
David Zurawik, baltimoresun.com, 23 Mar. 2018 Word History
Etymology
Note: As a literary term introduced by T. S eliot in the essay "Hamlet and His Problems," The Athenaeum, no. 4665, September 26, 1919, p. 941. In a more general philosophical sense the phrase was used by Washington allston in a posthumously published "Lecture on Art" (Lectures on Art, and Poems, New York, 1850, p. 16).
First Known Use
1919, in the meaning defined above