This edited volume traces cultural appearances of disgust and investigates the varied
forms and functions disgust takes and is given in both established and vernacular
cultural practices.
Contributors focus on the socio-cultural creation, consumption, reception, and
experience of disgust, a visceral emotion whose cultural situatedness and circulation
has historically been overlooked in academic scholarship. Chapters challenge and
supplement the biological understanding of disgust as a danger reaction and as a
base emotion evoked by the lower senses, touch, taste and smell, through a wealth of
original case studies in which disgust is analyzed in its aesthetic qualities, and in its
cultural and artistic appearances and uses, featuring visual and aural media.
Because it is interdisciplinary, the book will be of interest to scholars in a wide
range of felds, including visual studies, philosophy, aesthetics, sociology, history,
literature, and musicology.