Description
(Text)
Literature responds and contributes to the ways in which societies imagine their condition in general and economic life in particular. However, the weighty contribution made by smell motifs to the literary evaluation of work-related topics has remained underexplored. Work-related smells play an important role in contexts of social inclusion and exclusion, and they can impact strongly on the scope and limits for the fulfillment of needs at or around the workplace. As emotionally powerful devices, olfactory motifs are also used imaginatively to counter culturally habitualised views on work. The book explores four issues which underpin the nexus of smell and work in literature: the social othering of smelly workers, a worker's sense of social belonging mediated by smell, negative health effects of smelly work environments, and work related smell in ambivalent contexts of sensual indulgence. The chapters cover European, American and Asian texts and also open up new perspectives for comparative studies.
(Author portrait)
Frank Krause is Professor Emeritus at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he taught German, English and Comparative Literature (1996-2024). He has written on Expressionism, narratives of the First World War and the history of smell motifs. Publications include Geruch und Glaube in der Literatur (2023), Expressionismus 18: Riechen und Gerüche (co-ed., 2023), Smell and Social Life (co-ed., 2021) and Geruchslandschaften mit Kriegsleichen (2016).
