What is Themes

The position of Shakespeare in the South African secondary education curriculum has become highly contested in response to calls for decolonizing the English curriculum through the deliberate inclusion of indigenous writers. This study proposes that decolonizing the teaching of Shakespeare is not to remove Shakespeare from the curricula but to propose the introduction of transcripts written by alternative voices. This chapter adopts a qualitative research method by employing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) since phenomenologists are generally interested in the lived experiences of human beings. The data were collected from previous literature, “Hamlet” texts, and the responses from students during “Hamlet” lessons. The data analysis includes an analysis of the dominant themes present in “Hamlet,” such as the power dynamics of politics, corruption, and the role of women, and how to apply these in society. This chapter draws from the postcolonial theory as a ‘political discourse emerged largely from experiences of domination and struggles for freedom in Africa'.