Incest in literature

Modern literature

Vladimir Nabokov's novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969) deals very heavily with the incestuous relationships in the intricate family tree of the main character, Van Veen. Ernesto Sábato's On Heroes and Tombs explores, among other subjects, the romantic relationship between a man and his daughter. In his novel Hogg, written in 1969, Samuel R. Delany employed incest as a way to push the boundaries of heteronormative sex. 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. Dorothy Allison wrote about incest and sexual abuse in Trash: Short Stories (1988) and Bastard Out of Carolina (1992).

In Japanese literature, the light novel series Mushoku Tensei (2012) has several depictions of incestuous relationships.