Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art

This paper argues that in Peace , Aristophanes deploys the language of foul and fragrant smells to appeal to the reflexes of disgust and desire. The olfactory language does not simply accompany a narrative that moves from war to peace, with foul smells yielding to fragrant, but rather constructs a symbolic system separating pure and impure. Sacrificial ritual plays a key role in the reorganization of the world achieved by Trygaeus's quest. The important function of olfaction in stimulating memory suggests a reason for Aristophanes' choice of an osphresiological poetics in a play performed when Athens was on the brink of returning to war.

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Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art

Cited by 5 publications

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