Due to its existence in novels, anthropologists and psychologists focused heavily on the study of incest in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Considered a prohibited act by most Victorians, it entered the spotlight when Sigmund Freud spoke of sexual repression, and the subconscious playing a central role in human psychological growth and development. To Freud, our inner, sexual drives were our primary motivations; unsurprisingly, this extends to themes within literature.
While the incest theme dates back to classical literature, there is a lack of agreement among sociologists and anthropologists regarding the incest taboo and its origins. This has led many scholars to believe that the taboo derives not from some inherent moral code, but from our self-imposed need to separate ourselves from the animal world where all sexual activity is indeterminate. The origin of the word “incest,” which means incestum or “unchaste” in Latin, supports this interpretation. Incest has been treated as both a taboo and a special privilege in different eras.
The Adam and Eve story, arguably the world's first account of fictional literature, posits incest as the very foundation of humankind and reproduction. Furthermore, the incest taboo is a representation of our most fundamental attempt at social order. According to this theory, the family unit is the most basic representation of social order. Incest represents a serious violation of that order and is therefore disruptive or "animalistic."
What is consistent between life and literature, however, is that the most common incestuous relationship occurs between fathers and daughters. Critics also agree that most literature of incest presents a patriarchal culture, where feminine desire for masculine approval is both cultivated and promoted. With the development of Freudian analysis in the early twentieth-century, discussion of incest and its emotional, moral impetus was brought out in the open. The fundamental components of psychoanalytic literary criticism were in place and all literature could now be analyzed in light of incestuous relationships, real or fictional.
Freud aside, there is no denying of the theme of incest in the English novel. That said, there is certainly a lack of discourse surrounding it. If we push aside our sense of discomfort, there is a rich topic to be explored in terms of power relations, gendered oppression, and basic socialization. After all, an exploration of literature is ultimately a search for a deeper understanding of ourselves.
S.
Suggested Readings:
“The Dumb Virgin” by Aphra Behn
“The Force of Nature” by Eliza Haywood
“Burney Criticism: Family Romance, Psychobiography, and Social History” by Julia Epstein
"The Incest Theme in Literature and Legend:Fundamentals of a Psychology of Literary Creation" by Otto Rank
