Towards Coffeehouse Culture In Early Modern England

Originating in the east,coffee gave rise to a new coffeehouse culture in England in the middle of the 17th century,which was so characteristic of early modern era.The dissertation is not intended to describe the making of coffee and its sensory experience,but to explore the modes of language expression and the social changes their discussion reflected in the coffeehouses which served as a civil public sphere.Coffeehouses in England represented a rising public political sphere in the early modern era.As the nongovernmental center for discussing political affairs,these coffeehouses often worked as the platforms where clubs of different political interests discussed political and religious issues,thus producing a group of "coffeehouse politicians",who discussed republicanism,liberty and equality,criticized the king and his ministers,and even opposed monarchy.Too much freedom of speech and political appeals triggered the kingship suspicion,and in the 1670 's fierce collision between the coffeehouse and kingship occurred.Coffeehouses witnessed the formation of modern English new economic form.As a new business,coffeehouses were not only involved in the economic life themselves,but also served as negotiation settings for businessmen.Coffeehouses had become places of commodity auction and the birthplace of some financial institutions,such as the London Stock Exchange.In order to meet the needs of economic development,some new professional jobs,such as stockbrokers,were also born in these coffeehouses.Coffeehouses were the collecting and distributing center for the production of civil knowledge and the exchange of public opinions.The scholars of such universities as Oxford found their own new circles in the coffeehouses,where they discussed academic issues easily.Middle class people enjoyed a new experience of knowledge in these "penny universities".The social intellectuals like "virtuoso" and"wit" came into these coffeehouses to explore new knowledge.Undeniably,coffeehouses were also the hotbeds and transfer stations of false news and rumors,where public opinions of extremely different social classes converged to form a vortex of opinions with characteristics of that era.In addition,coffeehouses witnessed the preliminary formation of the interaction patterns in modern England,and the collision of various social customs during the transformation period.In these coffeehouses,there appeared an equal,pluralistic,open and tolerable social circle,where refined social interactive patterns and gentle philosophy of life took shape.To no one's surprise,some "rude" behavior of exotic and vulgar tastes also emerged against the mainstream and more dominating refined manners.Men's subtle responses towards women's intervention were also noticed.Needless to say,collision of social customs and manners were indicative of complex development in English modern civilization.To sum up,it is advisable that with the "civil public sphere" as the point of departure,and with the "new cultural history" as the oriented foundation,a historical observation and exploration of coffeehouses culture of England,made with a "thick description",should be of great help for amplifying the micro details of England in its early modern transformation era in particular and for profiling the development of western civilization in modern era in general.