Zapachowe autokreacje w tekstach kultury popularnej (na przykładzie wybranych wywiadów podróżniczych)

Abstract

The article aims at illustrating how self‑presentation — one of the main objectives of popular culture — is realised in popular texts. The genre in which the elements of autocreation have been examined is “travel interview” (or, more precisely, interviews with travelling representatives of the world of media), conducted with the intention to describe the world by means of olfactory sensations. These interviews have been collected in K. Skawska and K. Świdrak’s book titled Świat w zasięgu nosa [The World Within Smell]. A careful observation of the selected forms of expression allows one to discern the capacities the sense of smell displays for cognition and classification of the world, and to see olfaction as an element that constitutes and expresses indentity of the authors of fragrance travel accounts. The use of the sense of smell in the process of world exploration may be regarded as part of the study on the condition of homo aistheticos — a human being who “experiences the world sensually” and creates his/her indentity on the basis of sensuality rather than rationality.