Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ Physico-Theology of Smell

Krause, Frank. 2024. Barthold Heinrich Brockes’ Physico-Theology of Smell. ESPES. The Slovak Journal of Aesthetics, 13(1), pp. 48-63. ISSN 1339-1119 [Article]

[img]
Preview
Text
333-1268-1-PB.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (202kB) | Preview
[img] Text
Krause_Physico-Theology of Smell (20 March 24).pdf - Accepted Version
Permissions: Administrator Access Only
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (293kB)

Abstract or Description

Studies on the significance of olfaction for philosophical aesthetics are justifiably interested in innovative literary explorations of links between aesthetic values and olfactory perceptions. In this context, the early Enlightenment poetry by Barthold Heinrich Brockes has remained neglected: literary historians rarely pay attention to his approaches to smell, and the few pertinent studies appeared in German only. This article introduces the English-speaking public to the valuation of smell in the theological aesthetics of Brockes’ poems, and it concludes with a sketch of his contribution to the tradition of modern cultic smelling, in which the olfactory and the aesthetic are variously intertwined. He thematises smelling as an emotional climax of human relations to external nature which are validated by a sacred essence of the experiential world, the awareness of which can be conjured up through innerworldly poetic thought. This interpretive pattern of olfactory culture has remained relevant to the present day.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12734411

Keywords:

German Literature; Enlightenment; Nature Poetry; Natural Theology; Literature as Ritual; Literature and Olfaction

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

English and Comparative Literature

Dates:

DateEvent
March 2024Accepted
12 July 2024Published

Item ID:

35742

Date Deposited:

26 Mar 2024 10:56

Last Modified:

18 Jul 2024 08:39

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/35742

View statistics for this item...

Edit Record Edit Record (login required)