Economy and Value of Time in Boredom
The word boredom has been in circulation since Ancient times, in the shape of a variety of synonyms --acedia, taedium vitae, horror loci, melancholy, ennui, spleen-- and bearing a theological stamp, since it was believed to be a demonic sin in the Christian tradition. In modernity, however, for the “enlightened subject” (Goodstein, 4), as a response to social and economic transformations, boredom has become a secular experience concerned with temporality, signifying loss of meaning and feeling of emptiness in the pace of modern life. In critical circles, boredom remains a hybrid phenomenon that brings together a variety of contradictory definitions.