ENG Exam Review: Key Concepts in Race and Literature

White fragility

Refers to feelings of discomfort a white person experiences when they witness discussions around racial inequality and injustice.

Empathy

To recognize biases, prejudices and stereotypes in others and in ourselves.

Privilege

A special right, advantage, immunity granted to ONLY a person or group.

Oppression

The act of one social group using power or privilege for its own benefit while disempowering, marginalizing, silencing and subordinating another group.

Prejudice

Prejudgment or preconceived feelings or notions about another person or group of persons based on perceived characteristics.

Implicit/Unconscious Bias

Refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner.

Racialized (person)

Often used to stand in for 'visible minority,' this more fluid term acknowledges that race is a social construction that can change over time and place.

Racism

Refers to ideas or practices that establish, maintain or perpetuate the racial superiority or dominance of one group over another.

Systemic Racism

When institutions or systems create or maintain racial inequity, often as a result of hidden institutional biases in policies, practices and procedures that privilege some groups and disadvantage others.

Microaggression

A comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority).

Intersectionality

Acknowledges the ways in which people's lives are shaped by their multiple and overlapping identities and social locations, which, together, can produce a unique and distinct experience for that individual or group.

Ally

Allyship is a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and traditionally oppressed groups of people.

Accomplice

The Accomplice framework challenges the morality of the legal system — just because a practice is legal and lawful does not mean it is moral or just.

Co-conspirator

A co-conspirator is an active role, not a passive identity.

Formalist

Focuses on the text itself—its structure, style, and literary devices—without considering context like history or authorship.

Archetypal

Identifies universal symbols, themes, and myths (hero, quest, villain) that resonate across cultures and time.

Reader Response

Centers the reader's emotions, background, and reactions as key to shaping the text's meaning. A text gains meaning only through the reader's experience.

Post-Colonialism

Explores the cultural and societal impact of colonialism and imperialism, often focusing on identity, resistance, and hybridity.

Feminist

Analyzes how literature portrays gender roles, challenges patriarchy, and reflects societal power imbalances between men and women.

Marxist

Examines literature through class dynamics, labor value, and capitalist structures, seeing works as ideological reflections of economic systems.

Psychoanalytic

Delves into characters' unconscious motives, repressions, and internal conflicts, often using Freudian or Jungian theories.

Historical/Biographical

Views texts as products of the author's life and the time period, using historical context to deepen understanding.

Critical Race Theory (CRT)

Views race as a social construct. Emphasizes that racism stems from structural and institutional systems more than individual prejudice.

Ballad

Typically written in quatrains (4-line stanzas) with common rhyme schemes: AABB or ABAB, often narrative in nature.

Concrete Poetry (Shape Poetry)

Visual form enhances the poem's meaning; the poem's shape is significant to its interpretation.

Sonnet

14 lines with a variable rhyme scheme; traditionally explores a single emotion or idea and features a 'turn' or shift in thought near the end.

Haiku

Three lines (tercet) with a syllable pattern of 5-7-5, often focuses on nature or a moment in time.

Free Verse

No set meter or rhyme scheme; mimics natural speech patterns while may still include rhythmic or sound patterns.

Elegy

Theme: Death and mourning; often written for a deceased individual or group and may end with a tone of hope or consolation.

Ode

Formal, lyrical, and often ceremonial; celebrates a person, object, or idea with variable stanza forms.

Limerick

Humorous or witty tone with a rhyme scheme of AABBA; lines 1, 2, and 5 are longer; lines 3 and 4 are shorter.

Stanza

A set amount of lines in poetry grouped together by their length, meter or rhyme scheme.

Couplet

A two-line stanza.

Tercet

A three-line stanza.

Quatrain

A four-line stanza.

Cinquain

A five-line stanza.

Sestet

A six-line stanza.

Meter

The pattern of stressed syllables (long-sounding) and unstressed syllables (short-sounding) in poetry.

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of rhyme that comes at the end of each line or verse.

Syllable

The single, unbroken sound of a spoken or written word.