Idleness, Indolence and Leisure in English Literature [Hardcover]

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.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 IndexRichard Adelman, University of Sussex, UKEmily Anglin, University of Toronto's Victoria College, USASimon Featherstone, De Montfort University, Leicestl«