Functioning on three distinct but coexistent levels, water imagery unifies Beowulf. On the first level, that of conscious symbolism, Beowulf's three water adventures develop the triple immersion motif present in Anglo-Saxon baptism ritual. On the second level, that of the poet's personal unconscious, the water monsters against whom Beowulf struggles symbolize the hero's Shadow, his fallen nature in which lurk inadmissable and anarchic desires. On the deepest level, that of the port's collective unconscious, the water monsters are symbols for the archetypal Mother to whose womb the hero of myth strives to return in order to achieve immortality by means of rebirth.

The inevitable (creativity). Between the ages of seven and fifteen years, Paul had sexual intercourses with his father. He was introduced to this state of matter by pornographic photos. Described as being representations of love, and thinking as such, he accepts to imitate the depicted characters, at the request of his father. From the Laurentians to Montreal, Paul and his father "will make love" everywhere: Onboard the car, at home, in the washroom of a school... They "will make love" despite questions from a mother who seeks to know the truth and whom Paul considers too weak to help him put an end to a relationship that becomes more and more heavier. Finally, Paul is able to say "no" to his father at adolescence. / Writing incest (critic). Studying incest literature in Les Enfants du sabbat by Anne Hebert. Taboo that needs to be shut of. But can not be because of the enchanting attraction of transgression; incest is shown and is said, it uncovers itself like a souvenir which repeats, here again, itself, hides behind lust, mysticism, whereas the voluptuous relationship is disembodied. This art of expression of disappearance which is found at each level in the text (tense used in the narration, characters, space) loans also to incest its defence mechanism and censorship as the symbolical exclusion, identification to the aggressor, and the will to succeed which is initialized by the confession of the victim denounciating the crime against human nature.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003. / Bibliography: leaves 264-281. Also available online.

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The incest prohibition, though ostensibly "universal," has inspired a wide range of explanations and definitions both within and between cultures. Intense debate sprung up around the incest taboo during the matrimonially tumultuous reign of Henry VIII, leading to the great interest in this theme, which flourished on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stages. Although Shakespeare contributed a number of works to the incest canon, King Lear does not treat the incest motif overtly such that many critics have ignored its crucial role in that play. A synthetic theoretical approach is useful in exploring the wide-reaching implications of father-daughter love in Lear, which challenges the parameters of the incest prohibition. / King Lear's effort to obstruct the marriage of Cordelia in the first scene constitutes a violation of the incest prohibition according to Levi-Strauss's notion of exogamy. To this violation, Cordelia contributes her belief that marriage requires only partial withdrawal of love from her father. Lear's unfulfilled love for his daughter Cordelia, whom he figures into wife and mother roles, exhibits oedipal traits and seeks gratification in Goneril and Regan. Lear experiences their "unnatural" refusal of his desires as emasculating sexual rejection, which manifests as the disease and guilt of transgression. He understands virtuous love as fatally tainted by sexual desire; the theme of love-as-death gains momentum. The tempest emerges as an agent of justice and punishment. Lear and Cordelia's reunion reasserts the themes of adulterous love and love-as-death, foreshadowing their shared death. Their subsequent capture introduces an expanded notion of the father-daughter relationship, including the possibility of conjugal love, which is consummated in their marriage in death.

Contemporary analysis of Wuthering Heights necessitates a re-appraisal in light of advancements in the study of incest in non-literary fields such as history, anthropology, and especially psychology. A modern reading suggests that an unconscious incest taboo impeded Heathcliff and Cathy's expectation of normal sexual union and led them to seek union after death. John Milton's Paradise Lost provides a paradigm by which to examine the consequences of incest from two perspectives: that of incest as a metaphor for evil, as represented in Heathcliff; that of incest as symbolic of pre-Lapsarian innocence, as represented in Cathy. The tragic consequences of Heathcliff and Cathy's incestuous fixation are resolved by the socially-condoned marriage of Hareton and Catherine, which illuminates Bronte's belief in the Miltonic theme that good inevitably triumphs over evil.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Engilsh Language and Literature, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

A modern interpretation of Wuthering Heights suggests that an unconscious incest taboo impeded Catherine and her foster brother, Heathcliff, from achieving normal sexual union and led them to seek union after death. Insights from anthropology, psychology, and sociology provide a key to many of the subtleties of the novel by broadening our perspectives on the causes of incest, its manifestations, and its consequences. Anthropology links the incest taboo to primitive systems of totemism and rules of exogamy, under which the two lovers' marriage would have been disallowed because they are members of the same clan. Psychological studies provide insight into Heathcliff and Catherine's abnormal relationship—emotionally passionate but sexually dispassionate—and their even more bizarre behavior—sadistic, necrophilic, and vampiristic—all of which can be linked to incest. The psychological manifestations merge with the moral consequences in Bronte's inverted image of paradise; as in Milton's Paradise, incest is both a metaphor for evil and a symbol of pre-Lapsarian innocence. The psychological and moral consequences of incest in the first generation carry over into the second generation, resulting in a complex doubling of characters, names, situations, narration, and time sequences that is characteristic of the self-enclosed, circular nature of incest. An examination of Emily Bronte's family background demonstrates that she was sociologically and psychologically predisposed to write a story with an underlying incest motif.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of French, Classics, and Italian, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 17, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-190). Also issued in print.