1. Term: Historical/Cultural Context
The time and place in which the work is set or in which it was written.
How do you know? The historical/cultural context is revealed by specific details.
Details include: events, beliefs and customs
How can I identify examples?
Read the author’s biography and other text aids
Identify references to historical/cultural events, beliefs and customs
Notice the ways in which your reactions to ideas and situations in the work differ from the reactions of the characters
Note how characters’ behaviors and attitudes reflect the context
Reflect on historical/cultural context defines themes and lessons

2. Historical/Cultural Context of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Segregation and the Jim Crow Laws
Assigned seating in public
Separate restrooms
White medical professionals not required to aid African American patients
Interracial relations prohibited
Separate neighborhoods
Never allowed to touch
Whites always served first
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
The Civil Rights movement
Rosa Parks
Dr. King Jr.
Brown vs. Board of Education
Nonviolent protest

3. Literary Term: Dialect
Dialect is a way of speaking that is common to people of a region or group.
The words, pronunciations, and grammar of a dialect differ from those of the standard form of a language.
Why would an author use dialect?
To reveal the story’s setting, to make settings more vivid, and to add realism to narratives (stories)
to reveal character traits and relationships (indirect characterization)