Linda Marie Rouillard is Professor of French, Chair of World Languages and Cultures, University of Toledo, USA.

1.       Chapter 1 Introduction: Too Close for Comfort

2.       Chapter 2  Kinship Matters: An Immodest Proposal  

2.1   Medieval Definitions and Examples of Incest

2.2   Incest from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

2.3   Anthropological Definitions of Incest

        3.  Chapter 3  Heroines, Vilains, and Barbarians in Other Medieval Incest Narratives

            3.1 La Manekine and Medieval Hungary

       4.  Medieval Marriage, Misogamy, and Misogyny

             4.2 Monstrous Marriage

             4.3 Contaminated Rhetoric

             4.4 Containing Desire: Ritual Abstinence

        5. Chapter 5 The Hand of Forgiveness

        6. Chapter 6 Regurgitation, Restitution, Resurrection, and Relics

        7. Chapter 7 Spirit and Letter: Speech Acts in Selected Medieval Texts

        8. Chapter 8 Conclusion: The Legacy of the Incest Motif

Medieval Considerations of Incest, Marriage, and Penance focuses on the incest motif as used in numerous medieval narratives. Explaining the weakness of great rulers, such as Charlemagne, or the fall of legendary heroes, such as Arthur, incest stories also reflect on changes to the sacramental regulations and practices related to marriage and penance. Such changes demonstrate the Church's increasing authority over the daily lives and relationships of the laity. Treated here are a wide variety of medieval texts, using as a central reference point Philippe de Rémi's thirteenth-century La Manekine, which presents one lay author's reflections on the role of consent in marriage, the nature of contrition and forgiveness, and even the meaning of relics. Studying a variety of genres including medieval romance, epic, miracles, and drama along with modern memoirs, films, and novels, Linda Rouillard emphasizes connections between medieval and modern social concerns. Rouillard concludes with a consideration of the legacy of the incest motif for the twenty-first century, including survivor narratives, and new incest anxieties associated with assisted reproductive technology.