Idealistic Studies

Volume 34, Issue 3, Fall 2004

Farhang Erfani
Pages 303-317

Sartre and Kierkegaard on the Aesthetics of Boredom

This paper analyzes two inauthentic approaches to the problem of boredom from Sartre’s and Kierkegaard’s perpectives. I maintain that their narratives—Nausea and “The “Seducer’s Diary”—fit this problem perfectly, as it is through narratives that we appreciate and learn to avoid boredom. I also submit that their solutions are doomed to failure because they attempt to be the sole authors of their own stories, without making room for alterity.