Ties that bind: international studies in ecocriticism

As they say, there is nothing quite so quintessentially British as a cup of tea. The murky substance inhabits our daily lives, our social interactions, and our culture. A strong cup of tea is inherent in narratives of British identity. Yet tea is a product of colonial exploits and capitalist systems rooted in patterns of social and environmental injustice. By exposing the edible matter of tea as a global commodity it becomes imbued with meaning, the very matter saturated with the devastating impact of global capitalist systems and historical regimes of empire and
nationalism.