Overview
- Brings together literature, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, history, and creative writing as it relates to smell and memory
- Focuses on the rich cultural history of the Black Country, a region in the UK that is representative of many post-industrial areas around the globe
- Connects place-identity and smell-memory in understanding psychogeography
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About this book
From Banks’s brewery’s yeasty stink to groaty pudding to spicy curry, Sebastian Groes and R. M. Francis have assembled a new literary history of the smells and (childhood) memories that belong to the Black Country. This often overlooked region of the United Kingdom at the frontlines of post-industrial upheaval is a veritable treasure trove for studying the relationship between olfaction and place-specific memory.
Smell, Memory, and Literature in the Black Country is an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between smell and memory in which the contributions consider both personal and communal memory. Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, memory studies, literary studies and philosophy, the critical essays reconsider psychogeography through cutting-edge sensory and philosophical engagements with physical space, smell, language and human behaviour. The creative contributions from writers including Liz Berry, Narinder Dhami, Anthony Cartwright, and Kerry Hadley-Pryce meditate on the senses, place, and identity. Not only does this book illustrate the rich cultural heritage of the Black Country, it will also appeal to those interested in place writing. The book is prefaced by Will Self.
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Keywords
Table of contents (18 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“The book will not only appeal to those interested in the rich cultural heritage of the Black Country, but also those interested in place-identity, politics and the importance of culture in the twenty-first century.” (University of Wolverhampton, wlv.ac.uk, March 15, 2021)
“The book and its findings would appeal to ‘ anyone interested in the Black Country and the importance of regional culture – and especially Black Country writing’.” (Bev Holder, halesowennews.co.uk, March 11, 2021)
“What a wonderful anthology this is—tender, angry, kind, funny, diverse. Written and collated in praise of a rich, fascinating and criminally under-appreciated part of England, it is also further proof—if any more were needed—that the best writing stems from and excites not just the intellect but also the senses, the biology, our shared corporeality. Reading this book is a physical thrill.” (Niall Griffiths)Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Sebastian Groes is Professor of English Literature and Director of the Centre for Transnational and Transcultural Research at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He is the author of The Making of London (Palgrave Macmillan 2011), and British Fiction in the Sixties (2016), and is the editor of Memory in the Twenty-First Century: New Critical Perspectives from the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences (Palgrave Macmillan 2016).
R.M. Francis is Creative Writing Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He is the author of five poetry pamphlets: Transitions (2015); Orpheus (2016); Corvus' Burnt-Wing Love Balm and Cure-all (2018); Lamella (2019); and Fieldnotes from a Deep Topography of Dudley (2019). His debut novel, Bella, was published in 2020 by Wild Pressed Books.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Smell, Memory, and Literature in the Black Country
Editors: Sebastian Groes, R. M. Francis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57212-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-57211-2Published: 03 March 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-57212-9Published: 02 March 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIII, 194
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 4 illustrations in colour
Topics: Creative Writing, European Literature, Literary History, Memory Studies, Cultural Studies, Cultural Geography