The Writing of Olfactory Experience in Prose Narratives from 9th and 10th-century China -
The uses of aromatics and curated scents in late Medieval China operated in religious, medicinal, as well as secular contexts, with many types of aromatic materials arriving from Southeast Asia. How did literature from this time capture this evolving olfactory world? How were the experiences of smell, and curated scents in particular, described and distinguished? This talk delves into the connoisseurial language associated with aromatics in prose narratives from the ninth and tenth centuries, to examine how such language improvised and adapted vocabulary in order to capture these airborne and elusive sensory experiences. 

Linda Rui Feng is Associate Professor of premodern Chinese cultural studies at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto. She is the author of City of Marvel and Transformation: Chang’an and Narratives of Experience in Tang Dynasty China, and in her research works with materials ranging from maps and geographical treatises to collections of anecdotes and narratives, in order to investigate the interconnections among cultural technologies, writing, and the senses. A writer of fiction, she is also the author of the 2021 novel Swimming Back to Trout River, which was nominated for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, and the Giller Prize in Canada.