Incest is an important thematic element and plot device in literature, with famous early examples such as Sophocles' classic Oedipus Rex, a tragedy in which the title character unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother.
[1] It occurs in medieval literature,[2] both explicitly, as related by denizens of Hell in Dante's Inferno, and winkingly, as between Pandarus and Criseyde in Chaucer's Troilus.
[3] The Marquis de Sade was famously fascinated with "perverse" sex acts such as incest,[4] which recurs frequently in his works, The 120 Days of Sodom (1785), Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795), and Juliette (1797).
[6] Toni Morrison's debut novel The Bluest Eye (1970) tells the story of Pecola, a young girl raped by her father.
The Cement Garden (1978) by Ian McEwan and Flowers in the Attic (1979) by V. C. Andrews explore the motive of teenage siblings attracted to each other.