Stumbling toward a Democratic Theory of Incest

Prompted by the prominence of incest themes in the U.S. literary canon, the author raises and explores the idea of a "democratic theory of incest." To that end, the paper uncovers, tracks, and documents the interest in incest throughout the Western canon of political thought. It then prese...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political theory 2013-02, Vol.41 (1), p.5-32
Main Author: Seery, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambivalence
American literature
Canons
Democracy
Democratic theory
Freud, Sigmund
Incest
Kinship
Liberalism
Literary canon
Love
Political philosophy
Political Science Theories
Political theory
Political thought
Politics
Post-structuralism
Siblings
Social contract
Special Section: Politics in Film
Taboo
Taboos
U.S.A
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Summary:Prompted by the prominence of incest themes in the U.S. literary canon, the author raises and explores the idea of a "democratic theory of incest." To that end, the paper uncovers, tracks, and documents the interest in incest throughout the Western canon of political thought. It then presents and addresses a "standoff" in theoretical circles today: whereas many nonliberal political theorists have continued and developed the canonical interest in the politics of incest, contemporary liberals have largely dropped out of that extended discussion. By way of a re-reading of Freud's Totem and Taboo along with an analysis of John Sayles's 1996 film, Lone Star, the paper outlines a possible way out of a poststructuralist versus liberal theory impasse over incest, thus proposing movement in the direction of a democratic understanding of incest concerns.
ISSN:0090-5917
1552-7476
DOI:10.1177/0090591712463196