Literary analysis of ‘White Teeth’ by Zadie Smith and ‘Honour’ by Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning prominent novelist who was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1971. Being one of the most widely read woman writer in Turkey, she writes her novels in both Turkish and English. She has written nine novels most of which became best-sellers. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages. Her novel Honour (Iskender) which was published in the summer of 2011 was accused of plagiarism for its resemblence to Zadie Smith’s White Teeth. Through a close reading, one can observe that though there are some similarities in terms of the theme and the characters between Shafak’s Honour and Smith’s White Teeth, on the contrary there are also differences as well in terms of the basic elements of the novel. It is usual that the novels dealing with the same themes will most likely have some similar characters entangled with similar problems. Considering what the term plagiarism denotes, this article aims to highlight the resemblences and differences between the two novels through a close reading of both. Thus, the two novels are going to be compared in terms of such literary elements as setting, plot, characters, themes, and point of view.

Keywords

plagiarism, close reading, Shafak, Smith, White Teeth, Honour