Book Review: The Bloomsbury Handbook of Solitude, Silence and Loneliness

Abstract

This review outlines some key contents and features of a recently published handbook, perhaps the first comprehensive collection of scholarly works that brings together the three related themes, solitude, silence and loneliness. The volume also represents a dialogic and idea-sharing space among researchers in these areas. Some authors are members of the International Society for Research on Solitude (ISRS); others are editorial members of the Journal of Silence Studies (JSSE). As a humble but growing field, these themes have increasingly attracted scholarly attention, evident in activities such as the annual Alone Together Symposium initiated by Prof Julian Stern (UK) and Dr Malgorzata Walejko (Poland), the forthcoming Solitude Book Series with Bloomsbury, many research articles contributing to the Journal of Silence Studies (JSSE), among other undertakings that are expanding the body of research-based knowledge in silence studies.