SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading Incest - The University ...

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1 CHAPTER I READING INCEST: BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION Literary representations of incest reveal an astonishing variety of plotlines, characters, and morals. From comic to terrifying, the incest topos appears at the very instant of human (Western) consciousness, vanishing and reemerging as it travels across centuries, carrying with it the anxieties and complexities of the times. As Elizabeth Archibald writes, “Every society has taboos about incest, but they differ considerably, and so do literary representations of incest” (1). Because literature is not written in a vacuum, but is rather a product of its time, it is evident that usage of the incest theme shaped, and was shaped by, contemporaneous culture. Incest is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary simply as “unchaste”; however, volumes of clarifications, explanations, justifications, and especially legislations evolved over time in an attempt to proscribe precisely just what it did mean. Such efforts to make the definition absolute, however, only led to gaps through which incestuous behavior did enter societies. Sensing this weakness, kings, clerics, and simple folk skirted the laws, whether for power plays or true love, and communities found themselves in uneasy negotiations with sin and salvation, for such was the double message of incest narratives. Because of the great attention given to defining, codifying, and prohibiting incest, it is clear that there was tremendous anxiety over it, rather than unquestioning acceptance
2 of it, despite its familiarity to virtually all western societies. Incest narratives both uphold and subvert; they instruct and deconstruct, entertain and warn. There has been much invaluable critical work done on incest in general and incest in narratives of specific literary periods, from ancient to modern. Otto Rank’s 1912 The Incest Theme in Literature and Legend: Fundamentals of a Psychology of Literary Creation is encyclopedic in its survey of the different formulations that incestuous relationships can take, specifically father-daughter, mother-son, and sibling incest, in addition to relationships between step-relatives and affines. Elizabeth Archibald is perhaps the name best known for her several works on medieval incest. Apollonius of Tyre: Medieval & Renaissance Themes & Variations examines the transmission and reception of the Historia Apollonii, one of the most widely read tales of ancient Greece, medieval England, and early modern Europe. Her Incest and the Medieval Imagination notes and examines the prevalence and popularity of the incest motif in medieval tales. Karen Cherewatuk, in Marriage, Adultery, and Inheritance in Malory’s Morte Darthur posits that adultery and incest on the part of the Pendrake men are symbolic of Arthur’s failings and the consequent fall of his kingdom. For the early modern era, Richard McCabe’s Incest, Drama, and Nature’s Law 1550-1700 surveys incest as a metaphor for the ambiguity and confusion that accompanies attempts at absolutely fixed meanings of authority, politics, and natural law. Maureen Quilligan’s work, Incest and Agency in Elizabeth’s England, is a study of how women, a minority in the ranks of early modern authors, used incest in their works as a form of empowerment. The theories of George Haggerty in his 1989 Gothic Fiction, Gothic Form and 2006 Queer Gothic focus the
Page 1 and 2: SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading
Page 3 and 4: READING INCEST: TYRANNY, SUBVERSION
Page 5 and 6: APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has
Page 7: TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. R
Page 11 and 12: 4 about incest was influenced by th
Page 13 and 14: 6 clarification. Pope Gregory II ad
Page 15 and 16: 8 sibling, and mother-son. 2 She no
Page 17 and 18: 10 is viewed by both. Incest in eig
Page 19 and 20: 12 subverts both the social and the
Page 21 and 22: 14 CHAPTER II ‘SWICHE UNKYNDE ABH
Page 23 and 24: 16 a book to each of the seven dead
Page 25 and 26: 18 Richard” (111). The dedication
Page 27 and 28: 20 an idea familiar to Gower’s me
Page 29 and 30: 22 laboring-folk and Piers, in retu
Page 31 and 32: 24 introduction of Amans, the unsuc
Page 33 and 34: 26 learns. Augustine takes up the i
Page 35 and 36: 28 of the king, whose primary duty
Page 37 and 38: 30 bribed two priests to convince P
Page 39 and 40: 32 story of incest implied, averted
Page 41 and 42: 34 Again, her response impassions h
Page 43 and 44: 36 in the most extreme sense. When
Page 45 and 46: 38 in the first book, and relates t
Page 47 and 48: 40 benign, sympathetic interpretati
Page 49 and 50: 42 and Machaire, and at the same ti
Page 51 and 52: 44 To finish the turn in the narrat
Page 53 and 54: 46 oghne prest” (V.1382-3). Geniu
Page 55 and 56: 48 incestuous. When she vows to tel
Page 57 and 58: 50 epilogue that acts as a prayer f
Page 59 and 60:
52 Of wommen were absent as thanne;
Page 61 and 62:
54 speak at length and discover the
Page 63 and 64:
56 Biblical incest, mostly unjudged
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58 of a king and the function of la
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60 country. But the incest—the wo
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62 As chivalry is a controlling the
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64 conflicting demands of love and
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66 material for adaptation or trans
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68 four sons, Gawain, Gaheris, Agra
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70 can not be ameliorated, at least
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72 killed save Mordred, who was fou
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74 surrogate son-knights. Cherewatu
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76 Lo ye all Englysshemen, se ye ha
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78 demonstrated to all present on t
Page 87 and 88:
80 corruption that plagues the Pend
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82 CHAPTER III ‘INCEST IS IN ME
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84 wished to rid himself of Anne Bo
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86 societal forces. The plays focus
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88 in the family and on a national
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90 reputation shifted such that vie
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92 comes not from an instinctive ap
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94 virtue, resists and is made whol
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96 willingness to sacrifice the liv
Page 105 and 106:
98 Rejection of God and divine orde
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100 is as an “ungodly sickness”
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102 exercise her own agency. Though
Page 111 and 112:
104 potential problem of having a f
Page 113 and 114:
106 The plots of these three plays
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108 play, the Duchess will have bee
Page 117 and 118:
110 As we have seen, the Duchess us
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112 BOSOLA. It seems you would crea
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114 But as Ferdinand’s outrages i
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116 knife as phallus. Eros (Cupid)
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118 posed by his slide into unreaso
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120 and, as Kenneth Graham notes, i
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122 Castle of Otranto displays the
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124 Theodore is killed a group of k
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126 memory, and regard your highnes
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128 first Gothic playwright, publis
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130 the castle is there primarily t
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132 strength, and the men enter the
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134 God bless me; and pass’d on.
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136 familiar. It is more usual for
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138 sensation of horror in the audi
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140 foil to the Countess, with her
Page 149 and 150:
142 And when he knelt, weeping, to
Page 151 and 152:
144 Castle of Otranto, the knife is
Page 153 and 154:
146 and political realities during
Page 155 and 156:
149 destruction and disaster. One o
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151 subvert both patriarchy and mon
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153 BIBLIOGRAPHY Aers, David,ed. Me
Page 161 and 162:
155 Classen, Albrecht, ed. Violence
Page 163 and 164:
157 Ford, Jane M. Patriarchy and In
Page 165 and 166:
159 Lenz, Joseph. The Promised End:
Page 167 and 168:
161 Riddy, Felicity. Sir Thomas Mal
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SUMMERS, KAREN CRADY, Ph.D. Reading Incest - The University ...

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