Literary Incest: Moralism or Morality?

ABSTRACT Why is there an incest taboo? People avoid doing what conventions disapprove of their doing, and conventions are dictated by some sort of innate moral good, a moral inclination compatible with the referent kinship system. Essentially, incest avoidance is founded on deep psychological needs within domestic dynamics. However, far from being an anathema, incestuous behaviors in literary fiction become a natural inclination whose avoidance is to be thought less in moral terms and more as an evolutionary adaptation. Implicit in the argument is the suggestion that inbreeding is not about a rational choice but pure instincts that long precede societal taboos.