The Disgust that Fascinates: Sibling Incest as a Bad Romance (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sibling Incest in Tabitha Suzuma’s Forbidden and Kate Avelynn’s Flawed
Journal of English Language and Literature
This study purposely appoints the topic of sibling incest as reacted from the phenomenon of proliferation of illicit relationships that are increasingly being shown blatantly especially in social media. Through literary works such as novel, the phenomenon can be analyzed since those works are the portrayal of real life. 'Forbidden' by Tabitha Suzuma and 'Flawed' by Kate Avelynn were analyzed with three objectives; 1) describing sibling incest in both novels, 2) finding out the causing factors, 3) describing the impact toward the characters' life. To achieve those objectives, the concept of incest, theory of psychoanalysis by Karen Horney and theory of comparative literature were applied. While in analyzing the data, it used interpretive perspective with author-oriented approach which concerns with psychoanalytic criticism. The results of this study reveal that the sibling incest in the two novels is different in type although the offenders' composition is the same, incest between older brother and younger sister. 'Forbidden' shows non-abusive incest since it is done on mutual willingness which is motivated by affection, while 'Flawed' shows abusive incest since it is done forcefully by the older brother against his sister which is motivated by affection, eroticism, and aggression. The similar factors causing the sibling incest found in both novels are dysfunctional family and between ages peers, while the factor of Law of Homogamy is only found in 'Forbidden'. Those factors do not cause the sibling incest just like the way without any influences of the characters' psychological condition which is shaped by their childhood experience and neurotic needs. This study also reveals how sibling incest impacts the characters' life. They suffer from psychological problems such as anxiety, self disgust, depression, self-destruction, self-blame, low self-esteem, and trauma. The enactment of incest taboo in their state also impacts them to self-isolation and prosecution. Evidently, this study reveals that any kinds of sibling incest with any reasons behind it lead into bad impact and dark phase of the offenders' life.
Vice is Nice But Incest is Best: The Problem of a Moral Taboo
Criminal Law and Philosophy, 2013
Incest is a crime in most societies. In the United States, incest is punishable in almost every state with sentences going as far as 20 and 30 years in prison, and even a life sentence. Yet the reasons traditionally proffered in justification of criminalization of incest-respecting religion and universal tradition; avoiding genetic abnormalities; protecting the family unit; preventing sexual abuse and sexual imposition; and precluding immorality-at a close examination, reveal their under-and over-inclusiveness, inconsistency or outright inadequacy. It appears that the true reason behind the long history of the incest laws is the feeling of repulsion and disgust this tabooed practice tends to evoke in the majority of population. However, in the absence of wrongdoing, neither a historic taboo nor the sense of repulsion and disgust legitimizes criminalization of an act.
Beyond the Taboo: Imagining Incest
American Anthropologist, 2002
This article provides an overview of anthropology's 150-year discussion of the incest taboo in light of the last 30 years of feminist and psychoanalytic discoveries about the incestuous abuse of children, it invites anthropologists to explore incest ethnographically and offers three suggested ways: one biosocial, a second social relational, and a third psychoanalytic, focusing on a connection between what psychologists call dissociation and what anthropologists call trance or possession.
This paper deals with the influence of sibling relationships on the development of the individual from an interdisciplinary perspective comprised of three components: psychoanalytic thinking, literary texts from a variety of genres and periods, and literary criticism. Both the psychoanalytic discipline and that of literary criticism have a marked lacuna visa -vis relationships and their influence on the individual, which constitutes the departure point of this study. Although there is no doubt of the importance of sibling relationships and the influence they have on the subject, the theory and research of both disciplines contributed little or nothing on the topic. Both transference relationships in the clinical field and in the case studies of major psychoanalytic ts, but absent in both psychoanalytical theory attempting to shed light on the psyche and its development, and clinical transference relationships, and in the field of literary criticism. Therefore, this paper wishes to address the sibling issue, thus becoming part of the current trend, which had its onset in the momentum over the past decade, due to the groundbreaking work of Prof. Juliet Mitchell, the British psychoanalyst and gender researcher. The decision to base this study on works of literature was twofold: the common conception amongst thinkers from the fields of psychoanalysis, philosophy and literary criticism that literature uniquely reflects emotional and experiential truths of the human spirit, as well as the prevalence of sibling relationship as a dominant, widespread and fertile theme in works of literature of different genres from the very inception of humankind throughout the ages. This portrayal of myriad dynamics and patterns is a reflection of the importance, complexity and strong influence of sibling relationships on the being and identity of the subject.
Incest as Master Morality: The Politics of Taboo
2016
What is the right thing to do? This subject of normative inquiry seems to have pervaded into all echelons of theoretical academic circles. While debating a life time about what moral stands we ought to pursue and what beliefs to proscribe, we seem to have forgotten to question the genesis of the concept of morality itself. What is "the good"? And, thus, subsequently, what is "the bad"? This paper attempts to understand the notion of morality by analysing incest, as a practice of master morality. By applying a Nietzschean lens, this paper seeks to understand how morality has changed in the course of time and what it has meant in different epochs that have passed by. More importantly, incest is simply an entry point here to a larger discussion on the meta-ethics of it all. While engaging in a genealogy of morality, we must stop and raise questions about how are we to govern ourselves: by standards of morality prescribed by the times or by a larger understanding of morality as a concept. In the last analysis, through the subject of incest, the paper seeks to bring out the dilemma involved in the politics of choice that reigns this world supreme. We must decide what encompasses taboo and what does not.