ABSTRACT
Theorists of smell propose contradictory models of olfaction in cultures, especially Western culture. Whether increasing or decreasing, smells prove important in travel writing for visceral orientation, a capacity shared by different peoples (and species) but also culturally defined and potentially as much divisive as connective. Smollett and D.H. Lawrence create a poetics of bad smells; Jay Griffith defamiliarises bodies and places through smell; Orwell locates class in sociologies of smell. Using odours to construct ideological landscapes and identities, travel writers control emotions like fear and desire. The interdependence of smell and sight is tested in the writings of blind travellers.
