ABSTRACT
The affects, sensations, and reactions that we associate with “disgust” tend to be very varied in origin, intention, and intensity. Disgust, manifested not only in humans’ and other animals’ instinctive recoiling from danger and decay but also in the different kinds of symbolic discourses and cultural products that aim to normalize thought-patterns and behaviors, mobilize people, or bring about enjoyment, is in a variety of different ways more than a biological mechanism seeking to protect organisms from particular kinds of dangers, or a negative emotion negatively felt. In Indian aesthetics, the role of disgust has been central right from the beginning. In aesthetics and art criticism, the ambiguous push-and-pull feeling that unpleasant phenomena exert on us is often discussed through the "paradox of tragedy". Altogether, the writers in this anthology study the role disgust plays in human relations and social policing, popular culture, literature, music, and visual arts, as well as news and social media.
