ABSTRACT
Bastardy goes hand in hand with myth-making.1 It is regarded as an exception to the rule, an ex-centric phenomenon, and the excentric always generates myths of excess, whether for good or for evil. This rule applies whether the myths are those of whole social groups, products of what Jung would call a ‘collective unconscious’,2 or merely those of the individual psyche and its phantasms. This study will look at some of the personal narratives of illegitimacy and delegitimation, hoping to throw light on the relationship between the written texts and the phantasmic mises en scène which govern both individual performance and social prejudice.
