The coffeehouse in literature : society and politics in the café.

Abstract

In this thesis an analysis of the public settings and interactions of coffeehouses enable a reassessment of the social and political histories of three cities. I connect, in other words, London, Paris and Cairo in a story about print culture and performance. The three cities share similarities, but they narrate different histories. Coffeehouse literature expresses the various interactions between people, as well as the interactions between conviviality, social-political reform, and revolution. Coffeehouse literature, which this thesis treats as a literary genre, is involved, I argue, in a reactive relationship with history. The narratives involved in this thesis react to, as well as influence, historical arguments on the formation of a public and social identity, the generation of political consciousness and a political identity, and the transformation of society and government through revolution. Coffeehouse literature, belonging to different categories and subgenres, evaluate the different aspects of coffeehouse sociability under different social and historical settings. In fact, literature connects the historical arguments, on one level, to the sociopolitical manifestations of café culture. By constructing this narrative, this thesis brings forth the various representations of coffeehouse culture as expressed through different literary subgenres, in order to understand the literary café’s involvement in social and political reform.