Key Terms

Question 1

Realism

Answer 1

refers to literature (and art more broadly) that endeavours to represent its subject matter in as true to life a fashion as possible

Question 2

a return to…

Naturalism

Answer 2

• as a literary movement, this refers to a period between 1865 and the early 1900s
• Naturalism offers a return to realism, aiming towards an objective examination of human behaviour and the power of external forces over human decisions.
• In literature, the French writer Emile Zola is credited with pioneering the genre

Question 3

Satire

Answer 3

a term that described art which uses humour, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose or criticise immorality or foolishness. It is particularly used as a form of social or political commentary

Question 4

Hegemony

Answer 4

a term denoting the dominance of a group over another, often supported by cultural norms, ideas or political or economic control

Question 5

The American Dream

Answer 5

a cultural concept about the ability for any person, from whatever background, to strive for prosperity, equality and contentment in America

Question 6

Manifest Destiny

Answer 6

the political and cultural belief that the United States had a divine obligation to expand its borders to the Western territories

Question 7

Social mobility

Answer 7

a term describing a person or group’s ability to move to a different social class; it is most often used when describing movement up the social and class hierarchy

Question 8

Reconstruction

Answer 8

• this refers to period between 1865-77
• after the American Civil War, attempts were made to address the political, social and economic legacy of slavery
• the reintegration of Southern states who had seceded.

Question 9

Abolition

Answer 9

refers to the movement to abolish slavery in the United States. Abolitionists in the United States tended to draw from two camps, Black men and women who had fled enslavement and white, religious American citizens

Question 10

Jim Crow

Answer 10

• this is a term derived from blackface minstrelsy and was used as a racial epithet for Black people in the United States.
• It is also the term used to describe the laws and customs that were instituted to maintain the oppression of Black people after the abolition of slavery

Question 11

Miscegenation

Answer 11

the mixing of races but, in this context, specifically sexual intercourse and/or marriage between races. Often when discussing miscegenation the implication is of interracial mixing resulting in the bearing of children.

Question 12

Colourism

Answer 12

refers to discrimination on the basis of skin colour, generating certain privileges for lighter-skinned people of colour owing to their visual proximity to whiteness. This specific term is widely attributed to Alice Walker’s 1983 text In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.

Question 13

Passing

Answer 13

the social practice of a member from one group presenting as another. In an American context this most frequently relates to the racial passing of light-skinned or mixed-race Black people presenting as white