The Olfactory Story of Perfume in Literature, Psychology, and the Art

Organised by The Department Of English of the Faculty of Letters, together with The Department Of Theatre, Music And Fine Arts of the Faculty of Arts of “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi (Romania)

Imagine your nostrils are taken by assault. Sweet musty, whiffing fresh or sweet sour smells or even syrupy fresh smells. In some ways, the olfactory sense is the most mysterious of all senses due to the rich, intangible, and indescribable nature of smell sensations. And perhaps the most ineffable of all the senses, the olfactory sense seems to be “the mute sense” (A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman, 1990: 5) as it lacks the words and it floats free from any objects, remaining a primitive sense in our sensory manifold.

Like any other emotion, the olfactory sense has different experiences associated with it. The sparkle of a happy mood, the weariness of a deep depression, the red hot glow of a sudden flush of anger, the melancholy of regret; all of these olfactory journeys can affect conscious experience profoundly and pervade and colour all of our conscious experiences while they last.

Found in various literary and artistic genres which use descriptive language to engage readers’ sense of smell and deepen their connection to the story, olfactory journeys in literature, psychology, and the arts imply the sensory experiences related to smell, touch, and even colour. Just like visual imagery or auditory descriptions, olfactory imagery in literature, psychology and the arts can evoke strong emotions and create vivid mental landscapes for readers.

Perfume, with its rich, diverse and multiple personality types, aka scents, Perfume has always played a significant role in human experiences, inspiring artists and psychologists to explore the sensory, emotional and psychological dimensions it brings to our lives.

From the first breath of air into this world, scents become an ever-present entity in our existence, taking up all the spaces that we inhabit, physically, emotionally, or mentally. The physical loci of perfume are marked (and driven) by social dynamics and pheromones (as it is a fact that certain scents can influence attraction and social interaction) and also by an ever-pervasive cultural symbolism (being associated with rituals, traditions, and rites of passage to evoke a particular era, place, or mood). Clearly, understanding olfactory stories and their psychological implications helps researchers and practitioners explore the intricate connections between the sense of smell, memory, emotion, and behavior, highlighting the potential for olfaction to be used in therapeutic interventions and the exploration of sensory experiences in various psychological contexts.

The emotional loci of perfume are embedded within our brain’s limbic system responsible for memory and emotion, able to trigger off the Proustian Phenomenon (a specific scent evokes powerful memories and emotions) or enhance moods (uplifting, reducing stress or helping relaxation).

The mental loci of perfume are rather associated with self-expression (signature scents) and specific gender identities as the choice of a certain fragrance may reflect one’s personality, style, and even mood but it may also be a form of gender identity and conformity to societal norms.

Through olfactory journeys (textual, visual, auditory), authors aim to enhance the reader’s immersion in the narrative, create atmosphere, and evoke a specific mood or response. By describing smells, authors enable readers to experience the story-world in a multi-sensory way, making the reading experience more sensory and immersive. The olfactory journey can be both enchanting and repulsive, as different smells can evoke a range of emotions and memories.

From Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, to Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, to Tennessee Williams’s play The Glass Menagerie or to Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, the olfactory journey transports the protagonist in a certain moment in the past, in search of identity, creating a sense of place, or establishing a particular atmosphere.

To poets, novelists, playwrights, and musicians who compose works dedicated to the beauty and allure of scents, to painters, illustrators, graphic designers, and photographers who often explore the sensual and evocative nature of perfumes, capturing the essence of different scents through color, texture, and composition, to psychologists who look into the psychological and emotional impact of scents and the power of fragrance in shaping human experiences, or to therapists whose aim is to cure by immersing their patients in a complete olfactory experience, to all of them, perfume has always been a muse and its olfactory story in literature, psychology, and the arts is a testament to the power of scent in shaping human perception and emotion, an ultimate medium intended to explore beauty, desire, memory, and identity creating a sensory journey for audiences across different artistic expressions.

Indeed, the sense of smell can enhance storytelling by evoking memories and creating a rich sensory experience for the readers, becoming thus a bridge between the past and the present, allowing audiences to revisit moments long gone and experience a deep emotional connection making the work (textual/ visual) all the more impactful and memorable.

As such, we invite papers related to the conference theme and particularly encourage graduate students and other early-career scholars to apply.

We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations as well as 60-minute workshops/ panels in the following possible, non-restrictive areas of investigation.

• British and Commonwealth Literature
• American Literature
• Universal Literatures
• British Cultural Studies
• Translation Studies
• Discourse analysis.
• Semiotics
• Stylistics
• Psychology
• Film studies and other arts

Abstract submission:

Please submit a 300-word abstract and a 100-word bio note as an attached Word document to: lidia.necula@ugal.ro.

Kindly indicate if you plan to attend the conference in person or online. Abstracts should include the following information:

• author(s) with affiliation(s)
• email address 
• title and text of proposal
• five key words
• selected bibliography with 3-5 academic references
• Panel / Workshop Proposals

Panel proposals should consist of three papers that focus on the main theme of the conference. The panel organizer should invite participants and evaluate each paper in the panel, but the panel as a whole and its individual papers will also be reviewed by external evaluators. For a panel proposal, the panel organizers should submit a short overview statement of the panel theme (300-500 words), a list of participants, and the abstracts of their papers.

Important dates

• Deadline for abstract submission: 15.09.2024
• Notification of acceptance: 30.09.2024
• All submissions are blind reviewed by the members of the Reading Committee