Sărutul. Senzualitate și culturalitate
The Kiss. Sensuality and Culturality

Summary/Abstract: In the last century, the human kiss has earned a special attention from researchers: anthropologists, psychologists, neurologists, or cultural historians. True, as early as the 17th century, Martin von Kempe wrote an Opus Polyhistoricum de Osculis, a massive encyclopedia, in which he tried, for the first time in history, to systematize every known fact about the kiss. After more than 3 centuries of silence, at the beginning of the 20th century, Christopher Nyrop, a professor at the University of Copenhagen, gathered all knowledge of the time in a book, under the title The Kiss and its History, a well structured work, that included a documented typology, with an interest on the literary use of the metaphor of the kiss. In the 21st century, the most important study belongs to Sheril Kirshenbaum, an american scientologist who moves the focus from history to science, her book being widely read. Two years later, Marcel Danesi proposes an approach from the perspective of pop culture. His book, The History of the Kiss. The Birth of Popular Culture, talks about a lot of interesting aspects, including the birth of the so-called “romantic kiss”, the kiss in cinematography and art, the kiss as a cultural product, in a society focused on positive body affirmations. Another work based on the analysis of the kiss in human culture history is The Kiss in History, edited by Karen Harvey. The most recent attempt to analyse kissing is that of Hans Jurgen Dopp, a view from the perspective of sexuality. There are multiple studies dedicated, partly or whole, to the act of kissing, this being a very generous subject of study.

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