Boredom

The Element challenges prevailing views of boredom as a modern phenomenon and as an experience occurring inside our minds. It discusses the changing perspectives on boredom within psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis on both sides of the Atlantic in the last 100 years. It also analyzes visual and textual material from France, Germany, Britain, Argentina, and Spain, which illustrates the kinds of social situations, people, and interactions that have been considered tedious or boring in the past five centuries.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 75 pages
Publication date: 14 September 2023
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

The notion of boredom as a contemporary phenomenon and an internal mental state is challenged by this element. It explores the shifting perspectives on boredom within psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis across the Atlantic over the past century. Additionally, it analyzes visual and textual materials from France, Germany, Britain, Argentina, and Spain, which depict the types of social situations, individuals, and interactions that have been perceived as tedious or boring throughout the past five centuries. By examining the multifaceted ways in which words like ennuyeux, tedious, langweilig, aburrido, and boring have been translated between different cultural contexts (to convey a range of interconnected emotions, including displeasure, unease, and annoyance), the element demonstrates how the terms, concepts, and categories through which individuals have experienced their mental states are not solely culture-bound. Instead, they have traversed geographical and linguistic barriers through translation, imitation, and adaptation. Furthermore, this title is also accessible as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Weight: 166g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 8 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781009412384