by Audra Yoder, Scholar and Researcher University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Come and hear about the first full-scale academic study of the history of tea in the Russian Empire. Scholar and doctoral candidate, Audra Yoder, will talk about the vast history of tea-drinking in Russia, using expert and innovative research that has just been recently accessed in Russian archives and not yet been published in Russia! You'll learn about the introduction of many European elements into Russian cultural life, including tea and its accessories, which was highly controversial and stimulated a search for Russia’s “true” national identity. Despite being European in origin, the samovar quickly became so thoroughly integrated into Russian culture that the samovar was imagined as genuinely “Russian” by the late nineteenth century. As the cultural wars over Russia’s identity and future path intensified during that period, the vessel was increasingly associated with “old” Russian culture in the popular imagination. Simultaneously, some conservative religious groups continued to condemn tea because of its foreign origin. As varying and often contradictory understandings of the meaning of tea-drinking coexisted and competed with one another in the discourses of evolving social milieux, tea and the samovar found their way into debates about the future trajectory of Russian society.
Come and join us for an exciting lecture!