Boredom : a lively history / Peter Toohey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Toohey, Peter, 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Boredom--History.

Boredom.

Boredom in literature.

Physical Description:

viii, 211 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the first book to argue for the benefits of boredom, Peter Toohey dispels the myth that it's simply a childish emotion or an existential malaise like Jean-Paul Sartre's nausea. He shows how boredom is, in fact, one of our most common and constructive emotions and is an essential part of the human experience.This informative and entertaining investigation of boredom-what it is and what it isn't, its uses and its dangers-spans more than 3,000 years of history and takes readers through fascinating neurological and psychological theories of emotion, as well as recent scientific investigations, to illustrate its role in our lives. There are Australian aboriginals and bored Romans, Jeffrey Archer and caged cockatoos, Camus and the early Christians, Dürer and Degas. Toohey also explores the important role that boredom plays in popular and highbrow culture and how over the centuries it has proven to be a stimulus for art and literature.Toohey shows that boredom is a universal emotion experienced by humans throughout history and he explains its place, and value, in today's world. Boredom: A Lively History is vital reading for anyone interested in what goes on when supposedly nothing happens.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface

1. Putting boredom in its place

2. Chronic boredom and the company it keeps

3. Humans, animals and incarceration

4. The disease that wasteth at noonday

5. Does boredom have a history?

6. The long march back to boredom

Readings

Acknowledgements

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-204) and index.

ISBN:

1-283-21503-9

9786613215031

0-300-17216-8

OCLC:

747037635