Den olfaktoriska läsningen. Lukt i Sara Stridsbergs Happy Sally
The Olfactory Reading. Smell in Sara Stridsberg’s Happy Sally
Abstract
This essay examines the olfactory reading as a possible way to make sense of a fragmented novel, in this case Sara Stridsberg’s debut Happy Sally (2004). Through close reading, the essay identifies the source of the smells, who perceives it, and how this is portrayed in the text. The smell’s position in the text is understood in relation to Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, where the body, as created in the literary text, is considered as a source of knowledge. From there, the focalizing character, as formulated by Gerard Genette, is identified, to find the answer to the question of who, in the novel, is experiencing the smells. The result shows how the focalizing character is variable, and that the smell comes from places as well as characters. The smells are also understood in relation to descriptions of location and characters, taking inspiration from Mieke Bal and the idea of different schemas being used in descriptions of location versus character. Here, the result shows how the boundary between character and location is sometimes loosened. A central question concerns smell in relation to time, especially regarding the concept of pro- and analepsis. Some objects, places, and characters are static in their olfactory qualities, while others change over time, and it is hence possible to talk about static and dynamic smells. In the dynamic ones, it is possible to identify breaking points in the story. Smell is also understood as a possible engine of the story, where it sometimes makes characters act, but we can also see that the action of a character can affect the smellscape of the novel.
Degree
Student essay
View/ Open
Date
2024-06-29Author
Wurtzel, Nora
Keywords
olfaktion
lukt
doft
Sara Stridsberg
Happy Sally
narratologi
fenomenologi
Language
swe