Tea As a British Stereotype in Popular Culture Bachelor‘S Diploma Thesis
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Bc. Tereza Walsbergerová Tea as a British Stereotype in Popular Culture Bachelor‘s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, Ph.D. 2014 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………… Tereza Walsbergerová 2 I would like to thank my supervisor, doc. Michael Matthew Kaylor, Ph.D., for his assistance and guidance throughout the writing process of this thesis. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………5 2. Tea Drinking on the British Isles……………………………………………………………6 3. Tea as a British Stereotype in Popular Culture……………………………………16 4. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………….48 5. Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………….51 6. Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………………….56 7. Resumé…………………………………………………………………………………………………61 8. Summary………………………………………………………………………………………………62 4 1. Introduction A lot has been written about tea from many points of view; however not as much has been said about the role of tea as a British stereotype in connection with popular culture. The aim of this thesis is to explore tea as a British cultural phenomenon and a symbol of ‗britishness‘ and to illustrate how cultural stereotypes can be perceived by different people from different points of view. This all is executed by analysing various pop cultural resources while at the same time referring to the historical development of tea drinking on the British Isles. As for the organisation of this thesis, it is divided into two main sections: the historical section and the analytical section. The first chapter deals with the history of tea drinking on the British Isles, focusing on the development of the ritual itself. Additionally, it elaborates on how tea became popular in Britain and fast overcame the consumption of coffee on the British Isles while most of the rest of the world still preferred the latter. The second part of this thesis strives to answer the question whether there is any truth behind the stereotype of tea drinking in Britain. It firstly attempts to explain how national stereotypes and particularly British stereotypes generally function in society and later applies this notion to the British stereotype of tea drinking. Finally, it attempts to explore how this phenomenon is perceived all over the world (with special attention to the UK and the USA) and where it is possible to find the evidence of such perception in music, literature, film, television and other areas of popular culture by researching and analysing individual books, songs and television series. 5 2. Tea Drinking on the British Isles The tradition of tea drinking in England dates back to the 17th century. When talking about the history of tea drinking on the British Isles, it is vital to mention the British East India Company1, founded in the 1660, which was actively supported by Charles II and more importantly his wife, the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, who brought the habit of tea drinking to Britain from her homeland. She did not establish tea drinking on the British Isles, per se, but it was she who made it trendy and popular in the aristocratic circles from which it spread to the upper classes. It was not just the beverage itself the English brought back to the Isles in the 17th century, but also the whole ritual of tea drinking, which in China and India served as a ceremony to connect the body and the soul in harmony with nature. Additionally it is rather peculiar that something coming from such exotic places as India and China turned into something so distinctively ‗British‘ over the course of the years. In her article ‗The English Tea‘ Muriel Harris talks about the British adapting the habit of tea drinking so it suited their culture: And just as the Germans feel that Shakespeare should have been born in their Fatherland, so it scarcely occurs to the English mind that China tea really comes from China and Indian from India. And even if 1 The British East India Company was given a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I and was later favoured by Charles II who also gave it a permission to use military forces to establish their trading position in places such as today‘s Mumbai (then called Bombay) and Macau where most of the tea came from. 6 it does, what is China? What is India? Both are places to which the Englishman takes England and brings it safely home again. And tea? Tea was being poured in the panelled drawing-room when he left England, and seven years later he comes back for his second cup. It is as impossible for the Englishman to forget English tea as it is for him to forget England. (Harris 229) In a way it could be said that the British had adjusted the habit of tea drinking according to their cultural needs so fiercely they no longer considered it Indian or Chinese. The 17th century English coffee house experience was certainly in no way similar to the way the Indian and the Chinese enjoyed their tea. Originally the first teas were brewed in England every morning by boiling the leaves in a large caldron-like dish. The resulting liquid was then stored in beer barrels. According to John Griffith‘s book Tea: A History of the Drink that Changed the World every time a customer called for tea, ―a small amount would have been tapped from the barrel into a cup and boiling water from the stove added to it.‖ (Griffiths 353) Notably, tea had to be brewed every day early in the morning, because it was taxed in the liquid form rather than in the leaf form, which caused the quality of the beverage to suffer in the evening when most of the customers came into the coffee houses. (This was later resolved by taxing tea in its leaf form so it could be brewed fresh for every customer.) First teas were then served in bowls, following the customs of the Chinese, before the cups were introduced in the 19th century. 7 The 18th century is significant in the context of the history of tea drinking on the British Isles thanks to the well-arranged smuggling networks that developed in order to satisfy the demand for tea. According to the United Kingdom Tea Council, by the later eighteenth century more tea was actually smuggled into Britain than was imported legally (United Kingdom Tea Council). The briefly affordable price of tea made it even more popular, especially in the rural areas where these smuggling gangs kept their bases. The smuggling was later stopped in 1785 by reducing the tax on tea. Coincidentally, this was also the time when black tea became much more popular than green tea and when the tradition of adding milk to tea originated. While the 17th and the 18th century can be seen as the centuries of the domestication of tea in Britain, it was in the 19th century, that tea became the icon of British domesticity associated with privacy, intimacy and family. After the Great War, by the time Thomas Twining2 created his famous tea company, there were over two thousand coffee houses in London alone3. According to Griffiths this was an exclusively male business (Griffiths 353), however thanks to Twining, tea-time as we know it today was soon introduced into the bourgeois homes where it could be enjoyed by women (who were not allowed in coffee houses). The connection of class and status with tea will be explored later in this thesis, but it is important to stress that at this time tea was still quite luxurious and expensive, and it was 2 (1675-1741), English merchant and founder of the Twinings tea company which sold tea in loose leaf form so it could be brewed at home 3 the first purely tea house was opened in London in 1717 (Peters 39) 8 treated similarly to precious metals in the houses where it was kept. Tea would be traditionally served in the drawing-room along with various pieces of pastry (such as scones). According to Beryl Peter‘s book The Etiquette of an English Tea ―the mistress of the house would keep the tea caddy locked and spoon it out herself as tea was so expensive and precious‖ (Peters 11). Needless to say that not only tea itself, but also the elaborate tea services were too valuable for the mistress of the house to let the staff handle it, in case they were heavy-handed or clumsy. In most cases she herself would take charge of supervising the washing of the china. Here it is also important to mention the popularity of tea picnics with tea tents amongst the aristocracy, although the drawing-room was the most common place for serving tea. In her book Peters confirms that the tea table has not changed profoundly since then: The table would be covered with a pretty cloth with matching napkins. There would be a china tea service, teaspoons, a lemon dish and fork, and a vase of flowers. Sandwiches with crusts removed would be served; crumpets which were stored over a bowl of hot water to keep them warm, hot scones, cakes, pastries and sometimes seasonal fruits. (Peters 13) Since tea belonged to one of the most expensive goods brought to England from the colonies, it was used with cautious economy for many years. It was common practice for those who were able to afford to buy it to use the leaves twice, then dry them and then pass them onto poorer people, who certainly could 9 not afford to buy it, let alone drink it in the exclusive coffee houses.