A Thematic Analysis of Taboo Discourse in Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley's Lover Novel

Abstract

Objectives: This study has two main objectives: the first objective is  to identify and analyse the major themes and sub-themes of taboo discourse in D. H. Lawrence's (1928) Lady Chatterley's Lover; and the second one is to examine how taboo expressions are discursively constructed to convey underlying meanings and communicative functions in the selected excerpts from the novel.    

Methods: To achieve the objectives of this study, the paper encapsulates ten excerpts taken from Lawrence’s novel including taboo discourse. The study uses a qualitative descriptive data analysis research method. This paper draws on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework of thematic analysis to explain the themes and sub-themes of these selected excerpts and explain the underlying meanings of the intended excerpts.

Results: As a result of the thematic analysis of the selected excerpts, it was found that the taboo discourse is represented by the number of themes, such as desire, love, solicitations, and sexual expressions.

Conclusions: Thus, it can be concluded that the taboo discourse is a necessary part of the literary language and is used for different thematic and communicative functions. It can be stated that the results of the current research will be useful for linguists, translators, literary scholars and others.