"Stress," "burn out," "mental overload" the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries have witnessed an unrelenting expansion of the meaning of
fatigue. The tentacles of exhaustion insinuated themselves into every
aspect of our lives, from the workplace to the home, from our
relationships with friends and family to the most intimate aspects of
our lives. All around us are the signs of a "burn-out society," a
society in which fatigue has become the norm. How did this happen?
This pioneering book explores the rich and little-known history of
fatigue from the Middle Ages to the present. Vigarello shows that our
understanding of fatigue, the words used to describe it, and the
symptoms and explanations of it have varied greatly over time,
reflecting changing social mores and broader aspects of social and
political life. He argues that the increased autonomy of people in
Western societies (whether genuine or assumed), the positing of a more
individualized self, and the ever expanding ideal of independence and
freedom have constantly made it more difficult for us to withstand
anything that constrains or limits us. This painful contradiction causes
weariness as well as dissatisfaction. Fatigue spreads and becomes
stronger, imperceptibly permeating everything, seeping into ordinary
moments and unexpected places.
Ranging from the history of war, religion and work to the history of the
body, the senses and intimacy, this history of fatigue shows how
something that seems permanently centered in our bodies has, over the
course of centuries, also been ingrained in our minds, in the end
affecting the innermost aspects of the self.
