Boredom Studies Reader: Frameworks and Perspectives

by Michael Gardiner (Editor), Julian Jason Haladyn (Editor)

Boredom Studies is an increasingly rich and vital area of contemporary research that examines the experience of boredom as an importan – even quintessential – condition of modern life. This anthology of newly commissioned essays focuses on the historical and theoretical potential of this modern condition, connecting boredom studies with parallel discourses such as affect theory and highlighting possible avenues of future research. Spanning sociology, history, art, philosophy and cultural studies, the book considers boredom as a mass response to the atrophy of experience characteristic of a highly mechanised and urbanised social life.

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 4, 2016

About the author

Michael Gardiner is Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. He has published on modern Scottish cultural history, post-British cultures, the Scottish Enlightenment, and the cultural politics of nuclear disarmament. His books include The Cultural Roots of British Devolution (2004), From Trocchi to Trainspotting: Scottish Critical Theory since 1960 (2007) and At the Edge of Empire: The Life of Thomas B. Glover (2008).