Recurrent figure in world mythologies, folklore, and literature

Popular in late 20th-century literary criticism + remains "popular" among beginning students and less specialized audiences because it emphasizes familiar figures that reappear with some similarity across multiple cultures

danger: these appeals may lack specificity of good research, esp. "Historicism" in recent literary scholarship

Definitions / descriptions:

Tricksters upset the normal hierarchies and rules of everyday or official behavior, either through their cleverness or their foolishness.

They are often described as pranksters or mischief-makers.

Sexual disruption--cuckolding or same-sex action

"flamboyant gay" as trickster in recent American culture--flouts rules but usually can't be caught--Nathan Lane character in The Birdcage

May combine with "culture hero" concept--e. g. Prometheus stealing fire from gods and raising humanity from beast-status

Examples:

Norse mythology: Loki, god of mischief

African American folklore: Brer Rabbit

Hindu mythology: Krishna . . .  Baby Krishna stealing butter, young Krishna seducing the Gopis

European folk tales may feature tricksters in the form of crows, ravens, foxes (usually clever animals)

Native American folklore: Coyote + rabbit

cf. Brer Rabbit, The Tortoise and the Hare

Why rabbits? elusiveness + sexuality?

Other folk examples:

Anansi of West African Ashanti people > "Aunt Nancy"

Monkey or Monkey King of Chinese mythology

Iktomi in Dakota Sioux legend (Zitkala-Sa, American Indian Stories)

Muslim folktales: Nasreddin

Vodun or Voodoo: Baron Samedi

Nanabush of Ojibwe American Indians (Gerry Nanapush is a character in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine)

Pop-culture examples--mostly from students:

Bart Simpson of The Simpsons

Steve Erkel of Family Matters (?)

Jimmie J. J. Walker of Good Times

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck in Warner Brothers cartoons

Lucy in I Love Lucy

Roseanne of Roseanne

Gracie Allen of Burns and Allen

Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean (played by Johnny Depp)

The Joker and The Riddler in Batman, the Green Goblin in Spider-Man

Eric Cartman from South Park

The Mask (Jim Carrey, who's always a trickster)

Old TV shows: Dr. Smith in Lost in Space; Eddie Haskell in Leave it to Beaver

disruptive sidekick; cf. The Fonz in Happy Days

Gilligan and Maynard G. Krebs

Dave Chapelle

Newman on Seinfeld

Luanne on King of the HIll

Madonna? chameleon quality, always upsetting

Ray Romano's mother--instigates problem, racy mother-in-law

Alice in Wonderland: Rabbit, Cheshire Cat

Literary examples:

Puck in Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream

Reinhart in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Odysseus in The Odyssey (trickster + culture hero)

Huck in Huckleberry Finn, maybe the King and the Duke

Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Christopher Moore, Coyote Blue

Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857) + "Bartleby the Scrivener"

Gatsby in The Great Gatsby

Dr. Tamkin in Seize the Day

Lord of the Rings: Gollum

Woody Allen

Charlie Chaplin

Beatnik characters in life and literature: Ginsberg, Kerouac, Neal Cassidy, Burroughs

Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Bette Midler

Sex as the trickster impulse in human nature

Plus other body functions: adolescent boys making farting / belching noises in museums, church, etc.

Application to minority literature:

outsider, excluded parties or styles

participation threatens, overturns hierarchies

Examples from our course?

Guitar in Song of Solomon

Sandy in Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass

Vitamin Kid and Horse in Bless Me, Ultima

Upsides of trickster concept:

trans-cultural concept, "archetype" that tends to show up in diverse human cultures; therefore a supposed unity in human cultures regardless of direct influence--compare language acquisition as molar growth

puts a creative value on disruption, even destruction--for the new to emerge, the old has to be exposed and degraded.

especially younger students may relish this idea; can also teach older learners and teachers the potential value of people who don't fit in and won't submit quietly

Potential downsides of trickster concept:

A topic, subject, or motif that is so universal threatens to become meaningless--cf. astrology or handwriting analysis: it could apply to anyone or anything

But . . .

The trickster has a way of rejuvenating itself--just about the time the concept has lost life or become boxed in, it escapes and overthrows the formulas . . . .

follow-up on tricksters

Trickster as a more or less perennial figure in human cultures.

Coyote in Native America, hyena in Africa, Bugs Bunny or Ashton Kutcher or Chris Rock in American pop culture.

Useful multicultural concept, but how about "classical western literature?"

tricksters in western literature?

Odysseus, Loki, Fools in Shakespeare's plays

How about Bible?

Problem: Jews may be great comedians now, but limited sense of humor in Bible. 

Samson? episode of burning Philistine crops by tying torches to foxes' tails? (Judges 15.4-5)

Joseph, son of Jacob in the Old Testament? (e. g., "coat of many colors" can sound like "motley" or clownware. Also, consider how Joseph keeps working his way out of uncomfortable situations as potentially humorous. Also, Joseph is not typically listed among the Judaic patriarchs, possibly indicating an in-between status. )

women tricksters?

Superman < Lois Lane?

Heroines in Shakespeare's comedies, e. g. Viola in Twelfth Night, change identities through cross-dressing, often gently disrupting and exposing the assumptions of the governing society.

Upsides of trickster concept:

trans-cultural concept, "archetype" that tends to show up in diverse human cultures

can put a creative value on disruption; especially younger students may relish this idea; can also teach older learners and teachers the potential value of people who don't fit in and won't submit quietly

Personal example: students who drive me crazy

Initial reaction: stamp them out, drive them away, make them submit!

Following abject failure of initial reaction, the subsequent attitude or approach has evolved:

What potentially worthwhile value is this student trying to express, even in distorted or deformed ways?

What weaknesses or blindnesses in my own assumptions is s/he threatening? (After all, it's me who's going crazy--what's my problem?)

Danger of expanding application of trickster concept:

Can validate antisocial behavior to extent that this figure may overshadow or crowd out consideration of other worthy character types.

The concept becomes so inclusive as to become meaningless; cf. contemporary literary use of "voice" (means everything in general and nothing in particular).