The article aims at illustrating how self‑presentation
— one of the main objectives of popular
culture — is realised in popular texts. The genre in which the elements of autocreation have been
examined is “travel interview” (or, more precisely, interviews with travelling representatives of
the world of media), conducted with the intention to describe the world by means of olfactory
sensations. These interviews have been collected in K. Skawska and K. Świdrak’s book titled
Świat w zasięgu nosa [The World Within Smell]. A careful observation of the selected forms of
expression allows one to discern the capacities the sense of smell displays for cognition and classification
of the world, and to see olfaction as an element that constitutes and expresses indentity
of the authors of fragrance travel accounts. The use of the sense of smell in the process of world
exploration may be regarded as part of the study on the condition of homo aistheticos — a human
being who “experiences the world sensually” and creates his/her indentity on the basis of
sensuality rather than rationality
