Review by Choice Review
This ethnography of tea plantations in North Bengal, India, is an exemplary model of the numerous postcolonial volumes published by Duke University Press. Chatterjee (women's studies, Univ. of California, Riverside) indicates that "the methodology [she is] developing through the process of research is dependent on the contingencies of labour and the habitus of political isolation." She places herself at the center of the narrative as she describes her travels, conversations, and her own actions in conducting her research. The nine chapters are titled "Act 1, Scene 1," "Act 2, Scene 1," etc., and, in the way of many postmodern studies, cover a large number of topics; in this case, tea drinking in England, the role of tea in the independence of the US, and tea in China. The book is filled with nonsensical jargon such as, "The gendering of postcolonial feudalism in the plantation can be traced through the strands of its coercive webs." The almost constant self-referential narrative includes such totally irrelevant lines as, "We do not spend much time reflecting on the enigma of her jat identity." This book, pervaded with such examples, is not recommended. R. D. Long Eastern Michigan University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
