ABSTRACT

Boredom is commonly perceived to be an experience largely reserved for those that do not have a proper objective or direction in life. Another widely held assumption is that boredom is an experience that has been around since the dawn of time and is, in a word, ahistorical. A third assumption, related to the previous two assumptions, is that boredom is an inconsequential topic that is not worthy of serious academic inquiry. This chapter challenges these commonly held notions, by situating boredom as a historically specific experience that is unique to the rhythms of everyday life in the modern world. For this, a constellation of concepts by Georg Simmel (blasé personality), Henri Lefebvre (absence of style), and Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno (culture industry) is highlighted as containing key elements for understanding the historical particularity of boredom. Through an examination of these concepts, it is argued that boredom is dialectically linked to the very things that seemingly forestall the experience of boredom – the mass culture of modernity.