ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by tracing out some of the experiences that brought the author to the study of disgust. The chapter highlights curious, demanding, and puzzling aspects of disgust such as disgust’s dual nature of repulsion and fascination, its paradoxical and ambiguous nature, as well as its relationship to questions of morality and ethics. This chapter introduces the reader to the approach this text takes, which is to ask “what does disgust do?” and to the argument that disgust is active in creating meaning about the self, others, and the world. Lastly, this chapter invites the reader to consider their own disgust as a method for reading.
