# data[].attributes.body
Power and privilege:

Jennings'

Age of Iron

Age of Iron:

Mrs.Currens' white privilege

However, the black South African has more power over her during arguments (moral superiority?)

Power of the elite white (Apartheid)

Jennings':

Interrogator

Father to Son

SIH (power of fear)

TS1: Both Jennings' and Age of Iron portray privilege as a form of powerful dominance.

TS2: Jennings' poetry elicit the difficulty of the self to challenge power, and in Age of Iron, this power struggle is illustrated through the rebellious nature of the people.

TS3: Both Jennings' and Age of Iron reveal the inability of the speakers and the characters to rise up against their oppressors due to the lack of power, thus illustrating a sense of bleak hopelessness.

# data[].attributes.body
AOI:

Curren — privilege

Whites — power AND privilege

Hamlet:

Claudio — power and privilege

TS: The initial presentation of power and privilege in AOI and Hamlet allows characters to act purely in self-interest, insofar as to ignore external issues

Claudius to do as he wishes, gives Curren the ability to ignore apartheid SA (cancer)

TS: However, in the face of such oppressive authority — born of both power and privilege — both author and playwright highlight the human nature to reject this blatant injustice

John, Bheki and the blacks against the whites

Hamlet and daddy

TS: Ultimately, both AOI and Hamlet reveal the flawed notion of power and privilege — that in death, all power and privilege becomes irrelevant

Claudius death

Curren’s morbid fixation on and attempts to reconcile with death

# data[].attributes.body
Using any two of the texts you’ve studied, explore the presentation of power

and privilege, linking your discussion to issues of the mind and self.

# data[].attributes.body
Presentation of desire:

Hamlet

Age of Iron

Hamlet:

Desire for moral correction

Desire for revenge

Desire for power (Claudius)

Desire for honour (Fortinbras)

Desire for favour (R&G)

Self-serving vs for others

Age of Iron:

Desire for the past (Mrs.Curren's white girlhood)

Desire for the John and Bheki to listen to Mrs.Curren (Role as a mother/professor/educator)

Desire for rebellion (John and Bheki)

Desire for understanding Mrs.Curren to Mr.Thabane

TS1: Both Age of Iron and Hamlet places focus on the desire towards moral correction.

TS2: In Age of Iron, this desire is portrayed as a collective movement of change, whereas in Hamlet, desire is mainly self-serving of one's agenda.

TS3: However, the path towards moral clarity is hindered by characters' innate flaws, thus resulting in the failure of their desire.

OI: Both Age of Iron and Hamlet uses desire to illustrate how the character seek to fulfil their own agendas. However, in Hamlet, this desire is characterised by a strong sense of self, reflecting their role in the royal court, whereas in Age of Iron, desire stems from a place of lack, characterised by the struggles in South Africa.

# data[].attributes.body
Desire to explore

Issues of the M&S

Deviation between the mental and physical self

Hamlet:

procrastination (To seek proof, his waning vengeance)

Jennings:

constant introspection to understand reality

TS: Initially, both Jennings and Shakespeare present their characters to be ignorant of the inherent issues in their M&S

TS: As poet and playwright progress, both highliught each characters contemplation of the extent of their efforts to understand their limitations

Pigeon livered and lack gall

my mind is a room

TS: Ultimately, while neither poet nor playwright manage to surpass their limitations that halt their ability to manifest desires, Shakespeare’s Hamlet ‘defies augury’ …

… own requirings. I turn and the world turns…

Role as the protagonist/ tragic hero …

# data[].attributes.body
With reference to two texts you have studied, compare the ways their

authors present desire to explore issues of mind and self.

# data[].attributes.body
Jennings':

Old Man

Night Sister

TAFRV

My Grandmother (?)

Hamlet:

Hamlet fulfilling his revenge

Laertes fixation on Hamlet's death

Claudius killing King Claudius, fulfil his desires.

TS1: Both Hamlet and Jennings' demonstrate self-fullfillment as journey towards one's purpose.

TS2: In Hamlet, the journey towards fulfillment is marred uncertainty and doubt. However, in Jenning's poetry, fulfilment is portrayed as a certainty of one's own desires.

TS3: In the end, self-fullfillment is portrayed to be of lack as none of them was able to attain their desires.

OI: Self-fullfillment in Hamlet and Jennings' poetry is presented as the pursuit towards one's goals. Hamlet presents this through the thematic significance of a revenge tragedy, highlighting the inevitable failure of contentment, whereas in Jennings', fulfilment is potrayed as the speakers' certainty of their purpose in life.

# data[].attributes.body
Self fulfilment:

Hamlet

AOI

Hamlet’s self fulfilment:

avenging his father (revenge on Claudius)

AOI:

To attain peace within the self: whether through expressing her pain or through her attempts to understand and ‘heal’ apartheid SA, or even through speaking with her daughter — a final interaction

TS: Initially, both Shakespeare and Coetzee illustrate each character’s innate desire to be seen, to express themselves

be it Hamlet in grief or Curren’s complaining to Vercueil about his cancer

TS: However, as the authors progress, Coetzee illustrates Mrs Currens’ attempts at self-fulfilment through understanding her reality (role as a classics professor and whatnot). In contrast, Shakespeare’s Hamlet is presented to seek self fulfilment in order to satisfy his personal agenda. (Avenging his father).

to understand the apartheid by going to guguletu

Continually seeks to find evidences of Claudius’ crime (a form of self-fulfilment, to make peace with his potential actions), rather than focusing on taking revenge.

TS: Despite this, while Mrs Curren’s attempts at self-fulfilment is seen as altruistic, the reality is that she does so out of self-serving sentiments. Ironically, it was Hamlet who’s self-fulfilling actions was premised on an altruistic desire — one that transcends his own human satisfaction.

Curren wishing to go home after witnessing the apartheid in guguletu. “your voice is small and far away”

Mrs Curren, in the final chapters keep returning to her own cancer

Hamlet ultimately sacrifices himself to avenge not just his father, but also his mother.

# data[].attributes.body
With reference to two texts you have studied, compare the ways the

authors present self-fulfillment.

# data[].attributes.body
Qn focus: connection/ disconnection

Curren, Jennings

TS: Initially, both Jennings and Coetzee present a sense of disconnection with reality around them (Jennings — unable to reconcile reality with her impressions of it, Curren — fixated on her personal problems)

To a friend, in the night

Mrs Curren’s fixation on cancer, fixation on speaking to daughter

TS: However, as both Jennings’ persona and mrs curren attempt to bridge this ignorance, Coetzee illustrates Curren to be intrusively active, while Jenning’s personae were merely instrospective

Curren’s visit to guguletu, helping john, bheki

Jennings’ in the night (understanding her limitations to transcend her own mind)

TS: Ultimately, as both writers showcase the human desire to be sentient to and understand themselves and the world they live in, only Coetzee presents an optimistic shift in reality as a result of intrusive attempts to close their societal disconnect. In contrast, Jennings’ personae emphasises the inefficacy of introspection — insofar as to fall into despair when their disconnection is made abundantly clear.

Ending of AOI, vercueil

Jennings fall into despair (to a friend and in the night)

# data[].attributes.body
Age of iron:

Mrs.Curren's rs with her daughter

maternal connection with her daugther

Mrs.Curren and Vercueil's apathy

Connection between the black community (sisterhood)

connection with vercueil at the end - sexual rs

Jennings':

Father and Son (familial) - disconnect - misunderstanding

Disconnection of the self - WFT (lover)

In the night - disconnection with the world

Beyond Possession - disconnection with nature

TS1: Both Age of Iron and Jennings' focus on the disconnection of the self to the world around them, causing dissociation from reality.

TS2: This disconnection to the world causes them to feel a sense of loss that alienates them from the world.

TS3: In contrast, Age of Iron underline connection of intimacy between people through love. However, love is portrayed to disconnect the people in Jennings' poetry.

OI: Both text highlight how the speaker and character feel a sense of disconnection and faces difficulty to relate to the world However, Age of Iron reflects the inhospitality of South Africa for love that prevents connections to be formed, whereas in Jennings, the disconnection stem from the speaker's own internal struggle to reconcile their sense of self to the world around them.

# data[].attributes.body
Compare some of the ways in which two of the texts you have studied

present the sense of connection or disconnection in relation to ideas

about the mind and self.