Description: This collection of essays breaks new ground in the field of sensory studies. Organized around the five traditional senses, followed by a section on multisensoriality, the collection facilitates a dialogue between scholars working on literature written from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Review Quotes: "By probing the literary representation of sense perception across diverse periods and genres, the contributors to this volume attune us to the power of the written word to conjure worlds of sense. No sense is left unturned in this compendium, which also highlights the interactivity of the senses and the necessity of attending to the social formation of the sensorium or politics of the aesthetic - all of which makes for sensational reading. It is a harbinger of the sensorial revolution in contemporary literary scholarship." -- David Howes, Author of The Sensory Studies Manifesto
"An ambitious and exciting undertaking, which ranges across wide expanses of literary history. The essays offer illuminating accounts of the five senses and their conjunctions and many other fascinating sensory phenomena, from medieval visionary voices to the music of bees in the Renaissance, from taste and "good taste" in Chaucer to smells in the Victorian novel, the unprecedented perceptual experiences of the First World War and much more." -- Daniel Heller-Roazen, Arthur W. Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Princeton University