1st Edition

The Smell Culture Reader

Edited By Jim Drobnick Copyright 2006
    456 Pages
    by Routledge

    456 Pages
    by Routledge

    Smell is fundamental to experience but mired in paradox. Stigmatized as animalistic, it nonetheless feeds a vast fragrance and marketing industry. Considered ephemeral, scents have survived throughout the ages in a number of religious practices. The Smell Culture Reader provides a much-needed overview of what is arguably the most elusive sense. From hygiene to aromatherapy, the fetid to the fragrant, smells are shown to be much more than just an adornment or a nuisance. Addressing this engaging sense in redolent detail, The Smell Culture Reader demonstrates how essential smell is to sexuality, social status, personal identity, and cultural tradition.

    * Introduction OlfactocentrismJim Drobnick* Part I: Odorphobia * PrefaceJim Drobnick* Polish and Deodorize: Paving the City in Late Eighteenth-Century FranceRodolphe el-Khoury, California College of the Arts, USA* The Sociology of OdorsGale Largey, Mansfield University, USA, and Rod Watson, University of Manchester, UK* Immigrant Lives and the Politics of Olfaction in the Global CityMartin F. Manalansan IV, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA* Offensive BodiesAlan Hyde, Rutgers University School of Law at Newark, USA* Base Notes: Odor, Breath and Moral Contagion in IlahitaDonald Tuzin, University of California, San Diego, USA* Olfactory-Triggered Panic Attacks Among Khmer RefugeesDevon E. Hinton, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA, Vuth Pich, Arbour Counseling Center and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, USA, Dara Chhean, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA, and Mark H. Pollack, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA* Part II: Toposmia * PrefaceJim Drobnick* SmellscapeJ. Douglas Porteous, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada* Vagueness Gridlocked: A Map of the Smells of New YorkEleanor Margolies, writer and independent scholar* The Broken Cycle: Smell in a Bangkok LaneErik Cohen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel* Fragrant Signals and Festive Spaces in EurasiaLucienne A. Roubin (author deceased)* The Stench of PowerHans J. Rindisbacher, Pomona College, USA* Environmental FragrancingPeter Damian and Kate Damian, both authors and independent scholars* Part III: Flaireurs * PrefaceJim Drobnick* The New Calculus of Olfactory PleasureAlain Corbin, the Sorbonne, Paris* Sense and SensibilityHelen Keller, author deceased* The Dog Beneath the SkinOliver Sacks, author and neurologist, independent scholar* Nostalgia, the Odors of Childhood and SocietyAlan R. Hirsch, Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, USA* I Know What I Like: Understanding Odor PreferencesRachel S. Herz, Brown University, USA* Part IV: Perfume * PrefaceJim Drobnick* Another MemoryMarcel Proust, author, deceased* Perfumed ObsessionMandy Aftel, author, perfumer and independent scholar* Accords and Discords: Perfume ReviewsLuca Turin, CTO of the odorant design firm Flexitral* Perfumeros and the Sacred Use of Fragrance in Amazonian ShamanismJohn J. Steele, author and independent scholar* The Dialectic of 'Enscentment': Patrick Sueskind's 'Perfume' as Critical History of Enlightenment CultureRichard T. Gray, University of Washington, USA* Part V: Scentsuality * PrefaceJim Drobnick* The Eros and Thanatos of ScentsRichard Stamelman, Williams College, USA* Odor di Femina: Though You May Not See Her, You Can Certainly Smell HerCarol Mavor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA* 'The Roots of the Orchis, the Iuli of Chesnuts': The Odor of Male SolitudeChristopher Looby, University of California, Los Angeles, USA* Queer Smells: Fragrances of Late Capitalism or Scents of Subversion?Mark Graham, Stockholm University, Sweden* In Noritoshi Hirakawas Garden of NirvanaJennifer Fisher, York University, Canada, and Jim Drobnick* Part VI: Volatile Art * PrefaceJim Drobnick* A Wisp of Smoke: Scent and Character in The Tale of GenjiAileen Gatten, University of Michigan, USA* Eating Nothing: Cooking Aromas in Art and CultureJim Drobnick, University of Manchester, Canada* Self-Portrait in Scent: Sketch #1Clara Ursitti, Artist, UK* Digital Scratch and Virtual Sniff: Simulating ScentsMark W.D. Paterson, University of the West of England, UK* Part VII: Sublime Essences * PrefaceJim Drobnick* The Breath of God: Sacred Histories of ScentConstance Classen, author and independent scholar* Bodies, Odors and Perfumes in Arab-Muslim SocietiesFrancoise Aubaile-Sallenave, CNRS - Musee National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France* Magic, Perfume, Dream . . .Alfred Gell, author, deceased* The Scent of Memory in Hindu South IndiaDavid Shulman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel* Olfactory After-Death Communications,William Guggenheim and Judith Guggenheim, both independent scholars

    Biography

    Jim Drobnick is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manchester. He is the editor of Aural Cultures (2004), co-author of Museopathy (2002) and CounterPoses (2002), and is working on a book on smell in contemporary art.