Space Shifts And Identity Transformation

Tea originated in China and has a long history.This magical leaf arrived in the UK at the beginning of the 17 th century and began its transnational journey.With the development of history and culture,the unique British tea culture was gradually formed.Nowadays,tea is a necessary drink in the British’s daily life.At the same time,tea,this daily thing,also brings tea fragrance for English literary works.At present,few foreign scholars study the description of tea in English literary works.Compared with international studies,the results of domestic research are relatively rich in recent years,but most of the contents are scattered,repetitive and lack of a certain depth.Habermas’ s “public sphere” theory and cultural identity theories raised by others are employed in this thesis to explain the description of tea in English literary works,and to interpret the space shifts and identity transformation of tea.Tea experienced physical space,social space and cultural space,at the same time,in the process of historical development,the identity of tea was successively constructed as “the other”from the East,the beloved of the aristocracy,and the tool of British’s empire expansion and the symbol of British national identity.This thesis is composed of six parts:The first chapter is the introduction,which mainly introduces the background,values,methods of the research,the main points and the structure of the thesis.The second chapter includes the current research situation of tea in English literature at home,the author’s evaluation of the research results and the contributions of this thesis.The third chapter is the theoretical framework which mainly introduces Habermas’ s “public sphere” theory and cultural identity theories raised by others,and how these theories applied to the thesis.The fourth chapter interprets the space shifts of tea,and points out that tea has experienced three kinds of spaces,namely physical space,social space and cultural space.The fifth chapter analyzes the identity transformation of tea.In the course of the development of British history,the identityof tea has changed from “the other” from the East to the beloved of the royal family and aristocrats,and finally became the tool of the expansion of the British Empire and the symbol of British national identity.The sixth chapter is the conclusion.It summarizes the whole thesis and concludes the main points and inspiration,and reveals the limitations of this thesis.