Postcoloniali-Tea: Tracing Tea in the 19th Century - Einzelansicht

Tea is one of the most famous cultural "products" from England with the idea of English breakfast tea, among other forms, becoming synonymous with Englishness itself. In this class, we will be looking at the history of tea and how it came to fascinate various English businessmen and explorers in the 18th and 19th century by reading their travel writing. Primarily by reading the travelogues of English explorers and botanists who made explorations into "tea country" (in China), the question that we will be answering is this: What does reading these travelogues tell us about the global commodification of tea that shaped trade routes and empires? We will read how tea became a product that was at the centre of colonial expansion, colonising environments, and creating a product that has continued to be sold to this day. While reading these accounts via Mary Louise Pratt's book on travel writing, we will also be touching upon studies on tea from the last 10 years which expands greatly upon the colonial history of tea.

All the course material will be provided on Moodle for the course. Please write me at priyam.goswami.choudhury@uni-potsdam.de for questions and queries.

For full scredits, students will be expected to hand in an abstract about their prospective paper mid-way through the semester. For 3 ECTS, students will be expected to write a short essay of at least 1500 words. For 6 ECTS, students will be expected to write a long paper of at least 3000 words.