The Ways of White Folks vocabulary

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intelligentsia


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Definition:
a status class of educated people engaged in the complex mental labours that critique, guide, and lead in shaping the culture and politics of their society. As a status class, the intelligentsia includes artists, teachers, and academics, writers, journalists, and the literary hommes de lettres. Historically, the political role of the intelligentsia (the production of culture and ideology) varies between being either a progressive influence or a regressive influence upon the development of their societies.
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In Imperial Russia, before the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) the term intelligensiya described the status class of educated people whose cultural capital (schooling, education, enlightenment) allowed them to assume practical political leadership. In practice, the status and social function of the intelligentsia varied by society. In Eastern Europe, intellectuals were deprived of political influence and access to the effective levers of economic development; the intelligentsia were at the functional periphery of their societies. Whereas in Western Europe, especially in Germany and Great Britain, the Bildungsbürgertum (cultured bourgeoisie) and the British professions had defined roles as public intellectuals in their societies.

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The intelligentsia dubbed their highly publicized efforts of neo-paganism; others called it one more return to the primitive; others said out loud, it was a gyp game.

Langston Hughes. The Ways of White Folks: Rejuvenation through Joy p.79 (1934)
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It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners’ access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia.

William P. Young. The Shack (2007)
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