PSEUDOSYNAESTHESIA IN LITERATURE
Of course, we are all familiar with one type of pseudosynaesthesia: metaphor. That's right, the literary device that teachers once pounded into your head often takes on a synaesthetic quality. Critics differ as to whether the extremely vivid forms of synaesthetic metaphor should be attributed to the author's actually being synaesthetic, or whether the author was merely trying to achieve a synaesthetic-like experience. Of course, the two ideas are not mutually exclusive; the author may have had synaesthesia, and then tried to reproduce his sensations for the rest of the world to know.
The different authors I will mention on this page are the authors most commonly mentioned when discussing synaesthesia and metaphor, although there are undoubtedly others that could be included. You've probably even written something (probably poetry) in your life that could be interpreted as synaesthetic. But these guys are the well-known ones, so here they are.
Basho (1644-1694)
As the bell tone fades,
Blossom scents take up the ringing,
Evening shade.
This haiku by Basho has been taken as an "incredibly synaesthetic experience" by some, but it is questionable whether Basho actually had synaesthesia. This passage seems to suggest that a ringing bell slowly blends with the scent of flowers, which in turn blends with the darkness of dusk. However, this would involve a synaesthesia with three modalities, and it does not happen instantaneously, as synaesthesia is defined to. Either way, it is still a good example of pseudosynaesthesia.
Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
Like long echoes that mingle from far away,
In profound and shadowy unity,
As vast as night and like clarity,
Perfumes, colors, and sounds respond to one another.
This is the second stanza of Baudelaire's poem Correspondances, which is often cited as including synaesthetic tendencies. Some critics believe that Baudelaire actually experienced synaesthesia, but more people believe that he merely tried to represent this type of experience in his writing. He was well know to engage in hashish use, which can produce pseudosynaesthetic experiences, but he claimed that for him, hashish served to "enhance" those correspondances which already exist for him in nature. Thus, the evidence as to whether he actually had synaesthesia seems to be split.
Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907)
In his book A Rebours (Against the Grain), Huysmans seems to have given his hero, Duc Jean Floressas des Esseintes, taste-sound synaesthesia. Esseintes felt that every liqueur corresponded to the sound of a particular instrument. For example, rum could simulate the viola, creme de menthe was "like the flute, at once sweet and tart, soft and shrill." Further, gin and rum would "[raise] the roof of the mouth with the blare of their cornets and trombones."
Once again, it was originally thought that this story represented Huysmans' genuine synaesthesia, but later Huysmans described this story as merely an analogy.
Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)
LE SONNET DE VOYELLES
A Black, E White, I Red, U Green, O Blue;
Some day I'll crack your nascent origins.
The rest of this poem by Rimbaud goes on to describe the origins of each color/vowel pair. This link between color and sound (of the vowel) seems once again to be an intentional association by the author, rather than genuine synaesthesia.