37.2785, FYI: Call for Chapters: The Handbook of Boredom in Modern Literature

Tue Sep 1 15:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2785. Tue Sep 01 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2785, FYI: Call for Chapters: The Handbook of Boredom in Modern Literature

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Daniel Swanson <daniel at linguistlist.org>

================================================================

Date: 31-Aug-2026
From: JOSEFA ROS VELASCO [josros at ucm.es]
Subject: The Handbook of Boredom in Modern Literature

Call for Chapters
The Handbook of Boredom in Modern Literature
Editors:
Mariusz Finkielsztein (University of Gdańsk)
mariusz.finkielsztein at gmail.com
Josefa Ros Velasco (Complutense University of Madrid) josros at ucm.es
The Handbook of Boredom in Modern Literature is to be a comprehensive
monographic study examining boredom as a central aesthetic,
philosophical, psychological, and socio-cultural category in the
history of modern literature. Rather than relying purely on abstract
theory, this volume approaches boredom through focused case studies
devoted to individual authors and their works. Across these chapters,
boredom—alongside adjacent states such as ennui, tedium, spleen,
acedia, melancholy, existential malaise, and affective
exhaustion—emerges variously as paralysis, protest, privilege,
illness, and spiritual crisis. By situating close textual readings
within the broader intellectual history of modernity, the volume,
written by a multidisciplinary group of authors, is to demonstrate
that literary boredom is a powerful diagnostic lens on social order,
temporality, and the modern subject's experience of meaninglessness.
Volume Structure & Epochal Scope
The volume is planned as a Handbook or Companion and covers not only
the most vital writers addressing the theme of boredom but also a
broad selection of modern authors (around 60 chapters). The book is to
trace the evolution of literary boredom across (tentatively) seven
historical and thematic phases:
- Early Modernity & Enlightenment Foundations: Early reflections on
existential void and social routine (e.g. Diderot, Laclos, Austen).
- Romantic Ennui (1770s–1840s): Melancholy, idealist frustration, and
the world-weary anti-hero (e.g., Goethe, de Staël, Senancour, Byron,
Chateaubriand, Constant, Stendhal, Sand, Balzac, Musset).
- The Superfluous Man: The Russian literary archetype of social
paralysis, alienation, and unfulfilled potential (e.g. Pushkin,
Lermontov, Goncharov, Turgenev).
- Bourgeois Boredom, Realism, & Decadent Spleen: Domestic stagnation,
industrial monotony, social entrapment, and aesthetic decay (e.g.,
Dickens, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Fontane, Chopin, Ibsen, Gilman, Conrad,
Chekhov, Baudelaire, Huysmans, Wilde).
- Modernist Stagnation (Early 20th C.): Temporal distortion,
consciousness, alienation, and metaphysical paralysis (e.g., Proust,
Joyce, Pessoa, Mann, Kafka, Woolf).
- Catastrophism & Existential Absurdity (Mid-20th C.): Totalitarian
dread, the absurdity of existence, and postwar existential malaise
(e.g., Broch, Platonov, Orwell, H. Miller, Gombrowicz, Sartre, Camus,
Beckett, Buzzati, Gracq).
- Postwar Emptiness, Consumerism, & Digital Fatigue: Mass society,
late-capitalist hyper-consumption, information overload, and
contemporary affective exhaustion (e.g., Moravia, Perec, de Beauvoir,
Ernaux, Bellow, Bernhard, Duras, DeLillo, Houellebecq, Ferrante,
Rourke, Moshfegh).
Chapter Guidelines & Scope
Each chapter must offer an in-depth analysis of the theme of broadly
understood boredom in the work of a single author (according to a
formula: Boredom in...). The title should include the name and surname
of a writer as a main part, and a freely formulated subtitle.
- Analytical Approach: Authors may focus on a single representative
work but should analyse boredom across multiple texts of an author to
demonstrate how boredom functions as a recurring motif in the author's
oeuvre.
- Target Audience: Written primarily for readers seeking to deepen
their understanding of boredom in a specific author's work (spoilers
are permitted), while remaining accessible to a general literary
audience. Comparative analysis with other writers should be kept to a
minimum.
- Required Contextual Elements:
o Biographical Context: Key details situating the writer within their
epoch. Where applicable, personal engagement with boredom (e.g.,
excerpts from letters, diaries) may be included.
o Socio-Cultural Context: Historical background necessary to
understand the specific societal structures depicting boredom (e.g.,
aristocratic class dynamics, marital systems, late-capitalist work
environments, author’s country history and socio-cultural context).
Submission guidelines:
The abstract of the proposed chapter (between 250-500 words) along
with a short bio (up to 150 words) and contact information should be
sent to editors via e-mail before the end of October 2026.
Contributors may propose up to two chapters. Each submission must
include a brief statement detailing: (a) how the chosen author's work
relates to boredom; and (b) what the contributor's expertise is on the
writer. The minimum criteria for inclusion of a writer are: the author
must address themes of boredom/ennui, possess at least some
international recognition, and be available in English translation.
Poetry is excluded.
The comments and decisions on the proposed chapters will be provided
before the end of December 2026. Then, the proposal for the book will
be sent to prospective publishers (Routledge Handbook Series, The
Oxford Handbooks, The Cambridge Companions or The Palgrave Handbooks).
In case of a positive answer from a publisher, the authors will be
asked to prepare the chapter, between 6,000 and 8,000 words including
footnotes and references. Technical information will be provided after
the publisher accepts the proposal and will depend on the publisher’s
style. In case of any doubts and/or questions, we encourage
prospective authors to consult the editors directly.
Prospective deadline for chapters: mid-2028

Linguistic Field(s): Ling & Literature

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Australian Linguistics Society https://als.asn.au/Home

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

European Language Resources Association (ELRA) http://www.elra.info

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MDPI Languages https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com

SIL International Publications http://www.sil.org/resources/publications

----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2785
----------------------------------------------------------