Renaissance van de reuk - over de ‘olfactory turn’ en een (lang) vergeten zintuig

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the term sensory turn has been used in the humanities to refer to the increased attention paid to the role and significance of sensory experiences in the analysis and interpretation of cultural phenomena. However, this term does not fully cover the concept, because researchers have long had a blind spot for the “lower” senses. Following Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Hegel, among others, this refers to smell, taste and touch. A similar development took place in art history. Whereas cultural history could already boast groundbreaking studies on smell in 1982, such as Alain Corbin's Le miasme et la jonquille (1982), there was still a gap in art history for a long time. Despite the fact that avant-garde artists made scents and tactile poems shine in their total works of art, art historians paid little attention to them. In recent years, this gap in art history seems to be closing. In this contribution, I will discuss a specific part of the “lower” sensory turn, namely the olfactory turn: the growing attention to the sense of smell, one of the last bastions to be conquered within the sensory turn.