"Social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories."
A system of social stratification based on income, wealth, and occupation.
Colonialism: The historical process of acquiring and maintaining control over other people or territories, usually for economic or political gains.
Postcolonialism: A critical framework that examines the cultural, social, and political impact of colonialism and imperial powers on the colonized societies.
Decolonization: The process of regaining political and cultural independence from colonial powers by the colonized states or communities.
Hybridity: A concept that describes the blending of cultures and identities resulting from contact and interaction between different societies.
Orientalism: A critical term used to describe the western representation of the east as exotic, primitive, and inferior.
Anti-colonialism: A political ideology that opposes colonialism and advocates for the liberation of colonized people.
Neo-colonialism: The process by which former colonial powers continue to exert economic and political domination over their former colonies.
Nationalism: A political ideology that advocates for the creation and preservation of a sovereign nation-state.
Diaspora: The dispersion of a people from their original homeland, often resulting from forced migration or colonization.
Race and ethnicity: The social constructs that define and categorize people based on physical and cultural characteristics.
Postmodernism: A cultural and literary movement that challenges traditional norms and values through experimentation and deconstruction.
Globalization: The process of increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of economies, cultures, and societies across the world.
Gender and sexuality: The social constructs that define and categorize people based on their biological sex and sexual orientation.
Indigenous peoples: The original inhabitants of a land or region, often marginalized or oppressed by colonial powers and modern states.
Environmentalism: The movement advocating for the protection and preservation of natural resources and ecosystems.
Colonial Literature: Literature written during the colonial period, usually by colonizers or imperial powers. These works often represent the ideology and perspective of the colonizer and highlight the colonized as exotic and inferior.
Anti-Colonial Literature: Literature written by colonized people or their allies, which voices resistance against colonialism and imperialism. Such works challenge the dominant discourse of colonization and seek to restore the agency, dignity, and culture of the colonized.
Partition Literature: Literature that deals with the traumatic and complex consequences of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The works in this category often depict the lived experiences of individuals affected by the partition and explore themes of displacement, loss, and identity.
Nationalist Literature: Literature that expresses the nationalist claims, aspirations, and struggles of postcolonial nations. Such works are preoccupied with issues of independence, sovereignty, and cultural identity and often create a national narrative that defines and unites a country's people.
Diasporic Literature: Literature produced by postcolonial migrants and their descendants, which explores the experiences of living in a new country and the cultural, social, and political conflicts that arise from displacement and migration.
Hybrid Literature: Literature that combines elements from different cultural traditions, languages, and genres. Such works challenge the boundaries and hierarchies of dominant literary traditions and create new forms of expression and representation that reflect the complexities of postcolonial identities.
Ecocritical Literature: Literature that examines the ecological and environmental impact of colonialism and imperialism. Such works focus on the relationship between human beings and the natural world and explore how colonialism disrupts and disturbs that relationship.
"The most common [social classes] being the upper, middle, and lower classes."
"Membership in a social class can, for example, be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, income, and belonging to a particular subculture or social network."
"The term 'class' is a subject of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, and social historians."
"There is no broad consensus on a definition of 'class'."
"Some people argue that due to social mobility, class boundaries do not exist."
"Academics distinguish social class from socioeconomic status, using the former to refer to one's relatively stable sociocultural background and the latter to refer to one's current social and economic situation which is consequently more changeable over time."
"Karl Marx thought 'class' was defined by one's relationship to the means of production."
"The proletariat work but do not own the means of production, and the bourgeoisie, those who invest and live off the surplus generated by the proletariat's operation of the means of production, do not work at all."
"Max Weber argued that 'class' is determined by economic position, in contrast to 'social status' or 'Stand' which is determined by social prestige rather than simply just relations of production."
"The term 'class' is etymologically derived from the Latin classis."
"The term 'class' began to replace classifications such as estates, rank, and orders as the primary means of organizing society into hierarchical divisions."
"This corresponded to a general decrease in significance ascribed to hereditary characteristics and increase in the significance of wealth and income as indicators of position in the social hierarchy."
"Academics distinguish social class from socioeconomic status."
"Sociologists define 'class' as one's relatively stable sociocultural background."
"Political scientists analyze 'class' as a means to categorize citizens by wealth in order to determine military service obligations."
"Anthropologists study 'class' in relation to social and cultural contexts."
"Social historians explore the historical development and impact of different social classes."
"Membership in a social class can, for example, be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, income, and belonging to a particular subculture or social network."
"Membership in a social class can, for example, be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, income, and belonging to a particular subculture or social network."