What is Age of Iron about?
Winner of the Sunday Express Book of the Year award, Age of Iron tells the story of a retired woman dying of cancer, set against the backdrop of South African Apartheid, a brutal system of state-sanctioned racism and segregation that lasted from 1948 until the early 1990s.
What is the theme of the novel Age of Iron?
As stated, Age of Iron does not just contain a single theme, but several that follow like main threads throughout the novel, such as mother and daughter relationship, examination and inquiry of one’s self, oppression by government (Apartheid) and the disease both found in Mrs Curren and in the decay of the country.
What type of novel is Age of Iron?
Novel
Fiction
Age of Iron/Genres
What year is Age of Iron set in?
1986
Age of Iron takes place during a critical period of Apartheid’s history. The novel is set in 1986, a time in which Apartheid was still in full force but anti-Apartheid sentiments were getting progressively stronger.
Why is it called Iron Age?
It is called the Iron age because it was the time when iron was first used to make tools and weapons rather than bronze/stone ones.
When was Iron Age published?
September 1990Age of Iron / Originally published
Published in 1990, J. M. Coetzee’s Age of Iron spoke so powerfully against the tyrannies of its time—and the cruelty of apartheid South Africa—that it feels uncanny to read now, and discover how uncomfortably fresh are its concerns.
Who started the Iron Age?
The Iron Age in the Ancient Near East is believed to have begun with the discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus and Balkans in the late 2nd millennium BC ( c. 1300 BC). The earliest bloomery smelting of iron is found at Tell Hammeh, Jordan around 930 BC (14C dating).
Where was iron invented?
Archeologists believe that iron was discovered by the Hittites of ancient Egypt somewhere between 5000 and 3000 BCE. During this time, they hammered or pounded the metal to create tools and weapons. They found and extracted it from meteorites and used the ore to make spearheads, tools and other trinkets.
Why is Iron Age important?
The Iron Age helped many countries to become more technologically advanced. Metalwork made tasks like farming easier, as the iron tools were much better than what the people had before. During the Iron Age, farmers used an ‘ard’ (an iron plough) to turn over their fields.
Who first used iron?
Who were the Iron Ages?
The Romans called the people of Iron Age Britain ‘Britons’ and the island of Britain ‘Britannia’, that is, ‘land of the Britons’. The Britons had many ways of life in common with other peoples living in western Europe, who the Romans called Celts or Gauls.
What is the theme of age of iron by Jonathan Coetzee?
It’s clear in Age of Iron that Coetzee saw the struggles his homeland faced as biblical, mythical. They are issues of blood and sacrifice, of tribe and the leavening power of neighborly love in the face of such accelerants to rage and violence.
What is age of iron about?
Age of Iron proceeds, incident by incident, by asking us to imagine they may not. In many ways, it is an argument in the form of lyric prose for the opposite: the harder forces try to divide us, the more possible—certainly, the more necessary—it makes our uniting. There’s not a simple word for what this book is today.
What happens to Mrs Curren in age of iron?
As Age of Iron progresses, the violence between white and black South Africans moves from the backdrop to directly affecting Mrs Curren’s life. Among other horrors, she witnesses the burning of a nearby black township and discovers the murdered body of her servant’s son.
How is understanding a barrier to justice in age of iron?
Understanding— Age of Iron so often reveals—can become a barrier to justice when wielded in ways that assume a fundamental difference in people, rather than in their circumstances. After Bheki and his friend beat Verceuil, Mrs. Curren scolds Florence for encouraging the boys’ actions.