CFP: [Renaissance] Boredom avant la letter in early modern England (5/15/08; RSA 2009)

Boredom avant la lettre in Early Modern England
RSA Los Angeles 2009

The origins of boredom as a category of experience for English men and
women have largely been traced to the mid-eighteenth century. However,
individuals much earlier expressed their tiredness with the world as is,
their dissatisfaction with everyday life. Medieval moralists understood
“acedia” as a spiritual state signaling an absence of caring and apathy.
The French word “ennui” seemingly crossed the channel with the returning
Royalists in 1660. This panel seeks papers that explore early modern
English writers or artists concerned with the mundane side of everyday life
and/or objects. Potential topics include: melancholy and daily life,
material culture and “boredom,” the new philosophy and novel perceptions of
disaffected individuality, or distinctly apathetic expressions of political
deracination.

Abstracts and brief CV’s attached as Word documents by May 15 to
cdaddario_at_towson.edu.

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Received on Tue Apr 22 2008 - 07:02:26 EDT