Smell and memory as Jewish archives: the case of Russian Jewish writers
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Abstract
The paper analyses the complex dynamics of the rejection of ‘Jewish smells’ as markers of Jewish corporeality in the context of stereotypes constructed by Russian culture. It addresses the conflicting desire to cherish and yet reject the smells of childhood as an important repository of memory in autobiographical prose by Russian Jewish writers. It theorizes the notion of smell as a Jewish archive in the context of inter-generational knowledge, displacement, space and time. How can the most ethereal of all sensations serve as an archive? How do we pass on this type of knowledge-inducing mechanism to future generations? And how do writers negotiate their national/ethnic identities on the basis of this form of remembering?
Topics
Jewish Identity Age and Generational Issues Artefacts and Material Culture Memory Main Topic: Other Attitudes to Jews Stereotypes Libraries and Archives Literature
Genre
Geographic Coverage
Original Language
Volume/Issue
15(1-2)
Page Number
43-54
DOI
Link
Link to article (paywalled), Smell and memory as Jewish archives: the case of Russian Jewish writers
Bibliographic Information
Smell and memory as Jewish archives: the case of Russian Jewish writers. 2014: 43-54. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.1080/1462169X.2014.898491
