Olfaction and emotion: The quest for olfactory restoration in two speech communities

ABSTRACT

Olfaction has been described as one of the least studied of the senses. This has certainly proven true in Communication. This project applies Ethnography of Communication and Cultural Discourse Analysis to examine the role that olfaction plays in the cultural meaning systems of two speech communities: residents surrounding the Gowanus Canal and bereaved parents. The cultural hub used to explore the cultural significance of olfaction in both speech communities is feeling. The analyses illustrate how emotions are tied to associated sensations and further become activated through radiants of dwelling, relating and acting. The analysis also shows how olfaction may serve to unify and separate members of a community. The significance of this research encourages stretching the boundaries of communication studies by examining the less studied physical senses and the boundaries of Cultural Discourse Analysis by providing distinctions that others can incorporate when examining feelings.

KEYWORDS:

• Speech community
• cultural discourse analysis
• olfaction
• senses
• feeling

Notes

1 According to Milburn (2004, 2015), speech communities may refer to the patterned practices of a group of people, who may or may not be physically co-present, or geographically bound people who share a common way of speaking. Carbaugh’s (2017) conception of dwelling is another way to consider the way shared geographic places can be culturally meaningful by members of the culture themselves. When used as a radiant it may inform the way a primary hub of feeling is localized by a particular group.

2 Notwithstanding Freud’s (1893) description of an early case of smells and affect in an individual patient. His focus on intrapsychic experiences, similar to psychology, literature generally does not represent our interest in the interaction and culture.