Reflection of Taboo and Taboo Breaking in Two Selected Novels from Iran and Turkey “I Will Turn off the Lights” by Zoya Pirzad and “Snow” by Orhan Pamuk

Abstract

Taboo is one of the significant elements of popular culture, which is embedded in norms and beliefs. One of the essential sources for studying popular culture is literary works, especially novels. In the current article, the researchers have inspected taboo and taboo-breaking in two novels (“I will turn off the lights” by Zoya Pirzad and the novel “Snow” by Orhan Pamuk). The research method is analytical-descriptive, and the research data has been collected in a library and based on document research. The findings reveal that the studied authors, due to the influence of beliefs and opinions presented as taboos in society, are continuously involved in the contradiction between following taboos and breaking them and in the meantime.

Meanwhile, they regularly take the path of breaking taboos due to being influenced by the current culture in the society, which is going through the process of transition from tradition to modernism, and by creating courageous and inconsiderate characters in their works, they break some taboos, including religious and cultural taboos. They touch morally and politically. The research results reveal that the essential taboos used in the two novels are cultural taboos following religious taboos. Orhan Pamuk stated taboos more than Zoya Pirzad, and breaking taboos happened more in his novel than in Zoya Pirzad's.