MULTI-SENSORY IDENTITIES: AN INTRODUCTORY READING LIST
What is identity? Is identity something we can individually create, is it "socially mediated," or is it even fluid and constantly in formation? The following list investigates questions about the self and society, in conversation with the sensorium, engaging olfactory theories towards a multi-disciplinary exploration of being and belonging.
Note from Didi: "Making sense of identity" has been a lifelong project, if not dilemma, for both of us and the majority of our queer friends. It has never been a linear journey and hasn't been easy to understand which communities and spaces we belong to.
In our personal and communal research, olfaction has been a long-term companion for us, serving as an invaluable resource that diverges significantly from the traditional institutional education and elitist approach we were raised with.
We are forever grateful to have found a beautiful tribe of people who shares our interest in olfaction, an acute sensibility towards embodying a sensory self, and that has so touchingly welcomed us, allowing us to grow, and often direct us towards a truly enriching attempt for empancipation.
The list below focuses on the theme of identity, a topic that is undeniably being constantly reinvented through a multitude of fascinating and often complex and dissident theses.
In the Western world, it has traditionally been explored within psychoanalysis and philosophy, but in the 70s, feminist and post-colonial studies initiated its radical revision.
In recent years, the rising "Sensory Turn" has facilitated some incredible contributions to the study of identity, moving beyond the usual Western discourse that separates the body and mind as the two exclusively interacting factors. I believe that olfaction and the senses, in general, can offer some of the most radical and emancipated literature and knowledge in this regard.
The beauty of olfaction lies in the fact that it has predominantly emerged from non-institutional communities, separate from academia and the commercialization of the cosmetic culture.
Fragrance and everything related to olfaction have generated compelling discussions within autonomous communities of fragrance enthusiasts, who possess a much more profound articulation and knowledge than the current state of academia, just as the cosmetic industry often intentionally pretends to not recognize.
It is a privilege for us to witness the rise of this movement and its ongoing resistance against exclusionary practices of monetization and privatization of olfaction.
The list is divided into three main areas, all approached from a sociological and multi-sensory perspective.
It starts with contemporary critiques of the meaning of identity, and then engages with case studies that explore and recognize identity within the sensory sphere.
We conclude with a focus on olfaction, and how this historically neglected sense has often served as an invaluable tool for autonomous communities to bond and create meaningful connections and senses of belonging.
The list comprises academic writings, blog posts, podcasts, journal articles, and general observations that can be accessed online. It is not intended to serve as an exhaustive reference bibliography but rather represents our personally curated list resulting from a lifelong research journey.
We hope you enjoy the list and look forward to hearing your recommendations and opinions!
A SOCIOLOGICAL OVERVIEW ON IDENTITY AND IDENTIFICATION
- Liquid Modernitiy, by Zygmunt Baumann (Online PDF access via Giuseppe Capo Grassi)
- The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman (Online PDF access via Monoskop)
- Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay
Key chapters: 1. Introduction by Stuart Hall- Who Needs Identity? (Online PDF access via AfroFuturist Center)
- Queer phenomenology: orientations, objects, others by Sara Ahmed (online PDF access via The Queer Mathematics Teacher )
- The SAGE Handbook of Identities, edited by: Margaret Wetherell and Chandra Talpade Mohanty
- Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity, by Judith Butler (online PDF access via Self Organized Seminar)
- The cultural politics of emotion by Sara Ahmed (online PDF access via Pratiques d'Hospitalite)
- Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity by Erving Goffman
- The Feeling of Kinship: Queer Liberalism and the Racialization of Intimacy by David Eng
- Ugly Feelings by Sianne Ngai
- Blush : Faces of Shame by Elspeth Probyn
ARTICLES:
- Why Identity Matters by Critical Media Projects
PODCASTS:
- What about me? The Struggle for Identity in a market-based society by Freud Museum London
- Introduction to Personal Identity by Oxford University Podcast
MAKING IDENTITY DIALOGUE WITH THE SENSES
BOOKS & JOURNALS:
- The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture by Phillip Vannini, Dennis Waskul, and Simon Gottschalk (PDF accessible online via parasitecom)
- Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African Community by Kathryn Geurts
Key chapters: chapter 3. Language and Sensory Orientations, chapter 10: Sensory Experience and Cultural Identity
Key chapter: Chapter 3. The Politics of Perception: Sensory and Social Ordering
- The Politics Of The Senses by PIBE Magazine
OLFACTORY CONTRIBUTIONS ON IDENTITY
Pictured: 'Reclining Man with Peonies', 2021, Painting by James Dearlove , credits: AucArt
BOOKS:
- In Sensorium: Notes for My People by Tanaïs
- A Cultural History of the Senses in the Age of Empire, edited by Constance Classen
Key chapters: Introduction: The Transformation of Perception & chapter 1. The Social Life of the Senses: The Assaults and Seductions of Modernity
- Worlds of Senses:exploring the senses in history and across cultures by Constance Classen
Key chapters: Chapter 4: The odour of the other: olfactory codes and cultural categories
- Odoratus Sexualis by Iwan Bloch
ARTICLES:
- Olfactive Frames of Remembering: Theorizing Self, Senses and Society by Kelvin Low
- “I can tell by the way you smell”: Dietetics, Smell, Social Theory by Bruce Curtis
- Signature Scents: Perfume and Characterization in the Contemporary Novel by Tove Solander
- Creating Spices for the Mind: The Origins of Modern Western Perfumery by Maksym Klymentiev
- The Aroma of Recollection: Olfaction, Nostalgia, and the Shaping of the Sensuous Self by Dennis Waskul et. al
- Olfactophilia in queer films - i-D Magazine by Iana Murray
- You Are What You Smell: How Scent and Culture Are Intricately Linked By Geerdt Magiels
- Scent Bombs & Other Disruptions by Charenton Macerations
- Plagiarizing Pride: A Tale of Two Christopher Streets by Charenton Macerations
- Others & Ourselves in Frank Lloyd Wright's Mayan Revival-Style ''Ennis House'' (2 part essay) by Chronotope perfume
- Epistemology of Olfaction : Emotion, Cognition, and Decision Making by Vincenzo Bochicchio et al
- From Molecules to Perception: Philosophical Investigations of Smell, by Ann-Sophie Barwich, and Barry C. Smith
- Boholano Olfaction: Odor Terms, Categories, and Discourses by Bettina Beer
- Scent-orship and Scent-iments on the Scent-ual: the Relational Geographies of Smoke/Smell between Smokers and Non-Smokers in Singapore by Qian Hui Tan
- What does lockdown smell like? Understanding the COVID-19 pandemic through smell by Louisa Allen
- Aromas of knowledge, networks of scent: tracing the olfactory imagination of a 17th-century Ottoman traveler by Rao Mohsin Ali Noor
PODCASTS:
- On the Nose by Dana El Masri
- Episode: The Spiritual sense of Smell by Smell Yeah!
- Episode: Location, Location, Location! by Perfume on the Radio
