The Culture of Boredom is a collection of essays by well-known specialists reflecting from philosophical, literary, and artistic perspectives, in which the reader will learn how different disciplines can throw light on such an appealing, challenging, yet still not fully understood, phenomenon. The goal is to clarify the background of boredom, and to explore its representation through forgotten cross-cutting narratives beyond the typical approaches, i.e. those of psychology or psychiatry. For the first time this experienced group of scholars gathers to promote a cross-border dialogue from a multidisciplinary perspective.
Josefa Ros Velasco is Postdoctoral Fellow at Complutense University of Madrid. She was Teaching Assistant in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and RCC Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2019). She holds an International Ph.D. in Philosophy (Excellent Program of Doctorate in Philosophy at Complutense University of Madrid) as a scholar of the Spanish Ministry of Education (with Extraordinary Doctorate Award, 2017).
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
emsp;Introduction: Humanities Still Have a Say in Boredom Studies
emsp;emsp;Josefa Ros Velasco
emsp;emsp;Part 1 Boredom and Society
1 Boredom and the Disciplinary Imaginary
emsp;emsp;Elizabeth S. Goodstein
2 The Multitude Strikes Back? Boredom in an Age of Semiocapitalism
emsp;emsp;Michael E. Gardiner
3 Boredom: a Political Issue
emsp;emsp;George García Quesada
4 About Boredom: Hermeneutic Looks and Existential Analysis in Modernity
emsp;emsp;Juan Diego Hernández Albarracín and Carlos Fernando Álvarez González
5 Too Much Time: Changing Conceptions of Boredom, Progress, and the Future among Young Men in Urban Ethiopia, 2003–2015
emsp;emsp;Daniel Mains
emsp;emsp;Part 2 Boredom and Literature
6 Immersed in Boredom: the Architecture of Brisbane in Johnno
emsp;emsp;Christian Rafael Parreño Roldán
7 The Presence of Literature: Georg Büchner’s Comedy Leonce und Lena
emsp;emsp;Wolfram Malte Fues
8 Upper-Class Female Boredom in Marriage in 19th-Century Western Literature as a Manifestation of Socio-Cultural Pressures
emsp;emsp;Josefa Ros Velasco and Nancy Provolt
9 Men Walking into Woods. Boredom, Nihilism, and the Characters of Erlend Loe
emsp;emsp;Martin Demant Frederiksen
Part 3 Boredom and Creativity
10 The Art of Boring (Oneself)
emsp;emsp;Jorge Andrés Espinoza Cáceres
11 Perfect Boredom: From Disillusion to Creativity
emsp;emsp;Sergio Velasco Caballero
12 A Cartography of Boredom: Reading for Affectivity in Contemporary Poetry
emsp;emsp;Kristiine Kikas
13 Boredom and Institutional Critique
emsp;emsp;Judy Freya Sibayan
emsp;Postface Rhymed Reflections on Boredom
emsp;emsp;Francisco Cardoso Gomes de Matos
Index
Researchers on boredom from a wide variety of approaches including cultural and social ones, specialists in mental health and cognitive psychology, and anyone interested in human experiences.