Idleness, Indolence and Leisure in English Literature

Idleness, Indolence and Leisure in English Literature is the first study to provide transhistorical perspectives and cutting-edge critical analyses of debates concerning idleness in English literature. The topicality of the subject is emphasized by two pieces of sociological analysis.

Table of Contents:
List of illustrations Notes on the Contributors Introduction; Monika Fludernik and Miriam Nandi 1. Otium, Negotium and the Fear of Acedia in the Writings of England's Late Medieval Ricardian Poets; Gregory M. Sadlek 2. The Dangers and Pleasures of Filling Vacuous Time: Idleness in Early Modern Diaries; Miriam Nandi 3. The 'Sweet Toyle' of Blissful Bowers: Arresting Idleness in the English Renaissance; Abigail Scherer 4. Idleness, Apprentices, and Machines in Deloney and Dekker; Emily Anglin 5. Idleness, Class, and Gender in the Long Eighteenth Century; Sarah Jordan 6. The Performativity of Idleness: Representations and Stagings of Idleness in the Context of Colonialism; Monika Fludernik 7. Dramas of Idleness: The Comedy of Manners in the Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Oscar Wilde; Kerstin Fest 8. Idleness and Creativity: Poetic Disquisitions on Idleness in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries; Richard Adelman 9. Versions of Working-Class Idleness: Non-Productivity and the Critique of Victorian Workaholism; Benjamin Kohlmann 10. Against Busyness: Idling in Victorian and Contemporary Travel Writing; Barbara Korte 11. Tramping: The Cult of the Vagabond in Early Twentieth-Century England; Simon Featherstone 12. Englishness, Summer, and the Pastoral of Country Leisure in Twentieth-Century Literature; Leonie Wanitzek 13. Sociology of Leisure and the Wars of the Lifestyle Gurus; Ken Roberts Epilogue: Remember that Time is Knowledge, Health and Happiness: On the Mysterious Disappearance of Leisure; Hartmut Rosa Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Richard Adelman, University of Sussex, UK Emily Anglin, University of Toronto's Victoria College, USA Simon Featherstone, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK Kerstin Fest University of Freiburg, Germany Monika Fludernik, University of Freiburg, Germany Sarah Jordan, Albion College, USA Benjamin Kohlmann, University of Freiburg, Germany Barbara Korte, University of Freiburg, Germany Miriam Nandi, University of Freiburg, Germany Ken Roberts, University of Liverpool, UK Hartmut Rosa, University of Jena, Germany Gregory M. Sadlek, Cleveland State University, USA Abigail Scherer, Nicholls State University, USA Leonie Wanitzek, University of Freiburg, Germany