Trickster: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively ← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisual WikitextInline

Revision as of 22:42, 27 September 2020 editEditor2020 (talk \| contribs)Extended confirmed users, Rollbackers155,688 edits →Trickster or clown: spelling← Previous edit		Latest revision as of 01:35, 13 December 2024 edit undo76.146.170.110 (talk) →Literature and popular culture: 'Citation needed' fixedTag: Visual edit
(180 intermediate revisions by 98 users not shown)
Line 1:		Line 1:
	{{short description\|Literary archetype}}		{{short description\|Literary archetype}}
	{{~~Other~~ uses}}		{{other uses}}
			] as depicted in an 1869 children's book by ]]]
	{{pp-move-indef}}
			In ] and the study of ] and ], a '''trickster''' is a character in a story (], ], spirit, ] or ]) who exhibits a great degree of ] or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior.
	] as depicted in an 1869 children's book by ]]]
	In ] and the study of ] and ], a '''trickster''' is a character in a story (], ], ], ], or ]) which exhibits a great degree of ] or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior.

	==Mythology==		==Mythology==
	Tricksters, as ] characters, appear in the myths of many different cultures. ] describes the trickster as a "boundary-crosser".<ref name=Hyde>Hyde, Lewis. ''Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.</ref> The trickster crosses and often breaks both physical and societal rules: Tricksters "violate principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis."<ref name=Mattick>{{cite news\|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15/reviews/980215.15mattict.html\|last=Mattick\|first=Paul\|title=Hotfoots of the Gods\|work=New York Times\|date=February 15, 1998}}</ref>		Tricksters, as ] characters, appear in the myths of many different cultures. ] describes the trickster as a "boundary-crosser".<ref name=Hyde>Hyde, Lewis. ''Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.</ref> The trickster crosses and often breaks both physical and societal rules: Tricksters "violate principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis."<ref name=Mattick>{{cite news\|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15/reviews/980215.15mattict.html\|last=Mattick\|first=Paul\|title=Hotfoots of the Gods\|work=]\|date=February 15, 1998}}</ref>

	Often, this bending/breaking of rules, takes the form of tricks or thievery. Tricksters can be ] or foolish or both. The trickster openly questions, disrupts or mocks authority. ~~They are often male characters, and are fond of breaking rules, boasting, and playing tricks on both humans and gods.~~ {{cn\|date=August 2020}}		Often, this bending and breaking of rules takes the form of tricks and thievery. Tricksters can be ] or foolish or both. The trickster openly questions, disrupts and mocks authority.{{citation needed\|date=August 2020}}

	Many cultures have tales of the trickster, a crafty being who uses ~~cunning~~ to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. In some Greek myths ] plays the trickster. He is the patron of thieves and the inventor of lying, a gift he passed on to ], who in turn passed it on to ].<ref name=Hyde/> In ] folktales, the trickster and the ] are often combined. {{cn\|date=August 2020}}		Many cultures have tales of the trickster, a crafty being who uses tricks to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. In some Greek myths ] plays the trickster. He is the patron of thieves and the inventor of lying, a gift he passed on to ], who in turn passed it on to ].<ref name=Hyde/> In ] folktales, the trickster and the ] are often combined.{{citation needed\|date=August 2020}}

	] cuts the hair of the goddess ].]]		] cuts the hair of the goddess ].]]

	Frequently the trickster figure exhibits gender and ] variability. In ] the mischief-maker is ], who is also a ~~shape shifter~~. Loki also exhibits ~~gender~~ variability, in one case even becoming pregnant. He ] who later gives birth to Odin's eight-legged horse ]. {{cn\|date=August 2020}}		Frequently the trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability. In ] the mischief-maker is ], who is also a ]. Loki also exhibits sex variability, in one case even becoming pregnant. According to "The Song of Hyndla" in The ], Loki ] who later gives birth to Odin's eight-legged horse ].{{citation needed\|date=August 2020}}

			In ] folklore, a personified rabbit, known as ], is the main trickster figure.<ref>{{Cite book \|last=Baker \|first=Houston A. \|title=Long Black Song: Essays in Black American Literature \|publisher=University Press of Virginia \|year=1972 \|isbn=9780813904030 \|pages=10–14}}</ref> In West Africa (and thence into the Caribbean via the slave trade), the spider (see ]) is often the trickster.<ref>{{cite book\|last=Haase\|first=Donald\|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales\|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group\|pages= \|year=2008\|isbn=978-0-313-33441-2\|url= https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_w7y9/page/31 }}</ref> In southern African a ] is often the trickster, usually taking the form of a ].<ref name="Bleek">Bleek (1875) </ref><ref name="eland">{{cite journal \|last1=Lewis-Williams \|first1=David \|title=The mantis, the eland and the meerkats \|journal=African Studies \|date=1997 \|volume=56 \|issue=2 \|pages=195–216 \|doi=10.1080/00020189708707875 \|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00020189708707875}}</ref>
	In a wide variety of African language communities, the rabbit, or hare, is the trickster. In West Africa (and thence into the Caribbean via the slave trade), the spider (]) is often the trickster. {{cn\|date=August 2020}}

	==Archetype==<!-- This section is linked from ] -->
	{{Further\|List of fictional tricksters}}
	The trickster or ] is an example of a ].

	==Trickster or clown==		==Trickster or clown==
	The ''trickster'' is a term used for a non performing 'trick maker'; they may have many motives behind their intention but those motives are not in public view ~~largely~~. They are internal to the character or person.		The ''trickster'' is a term used for a non-performing "trick maker"; they may have many motives behind their intention but those motives are not largely in public view. They are internal to the character or person.

	The ] on the other hand is a ] of a performer who diplays their actions in public intentionally for an audience.

	==In literature==
	In modern literature, the trickster survives as a character archetype, not necessarily supernatural or divine, sometimes no more than a ].{{cf}}

	Often, the trickster is distinct in a story by his acting as a sort of catalyst; his antics are the cause of other characters' discomfiture, but he himself is left untouched.

	A once-famous example of this was the character ] on the early USA children's television show "Andy's Gang". A cigar-puffing puppet, Froggy induced the adult humans around him to engage in ridiculous and self-destructive hi-jinks.<ref>Smith, R. L. "".</ref>

	For example, many European ]s have a king who wants to find the best groom for his daughter by ordering several trials. No brave and valiant prince or knight manages to win them, until a poor and simple peasant comes. With the help of his wits and cleverness, instead of fighting, they evade or fool monsters, villains and dangers in unorthodox ways. Against expectations, the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the reward.{{cf}}

	More modern and obvious examples of the same type include ] in the USA and from ] the female hero in the ] stories.

	==Role in African American literature==
	Modern African American literary criticism has turned the trickster figure into an example of how it is possible to overcome a system of oppression from within. For years, ] was discounted by the greater community of American literary criticism while its authors were still obligated to use the language and the rhetoric of the very system that relegated African Americans and other minorities to the ostracized position of the cultural "other." The central question became one of how to overcome this system when the only words available were created and defined by the oppressors. As ] explained, the problem was that "the master's tools never dismantle the master's house."<ref>{{cite book\|last=Lorde\|first=Audre\|chapter=Age, Race, Class, and Sex\|title=Literary Theory: An Anthology\|url=https://archive.org/details/literarytheoryan00rivk\|url-access=limited\|editor1-first=Julie\|editor1-last=Rivkin\|editor2-first=Michael\|editor2-last=Ryan\|location=Oxford\|publisher=Blackwell Publishing\|year=2004\|page=}}</ref>

	In his writings of the late 1980s, ] presents the concept of ]. Wound up in this theory is the idea that the "master's house" can be "dismantled" using his "tools" if the tools are used in a new or unconventional way. To demonstrate this process, Gates cites the interactions found in African American narrative poetry between the trickster, ], and his oppressor, the Lion.{{sfnp\|Gates\|2004\|p=990}} According to Gates, the "Signifying Monkey" is the "New World figuration" and "functional equivalent" of the ] trickster figure of African ].{{sfnp\|Gates\|2004\|pp=988–989}}

	The Lion functions as the authoritative figure in his classical role of "King of the Jungle."{{sfnp\|Gates\|2004\|p=991}} He is the one who commands the Signifying Monkey's movements. Yet the Monkey is able to outwit the Lion continually in these narratives through his usage of figurative language. According to Gates, "he Signifying Monkey is able to signify upon the Lion because the Lion does not understand the Monkey's discourse…

	The monkey speaks figuratively, in metaphor. The lion interprets or reads this literally and suffers the consequences of his folly...See:{{sfnp\|Gates\|2004\|p=991}}

	In this way, the Monkey uses the same language as the Lion, but he uses it on a level that the Lion cannot comprehend. This usually leads to the Lion's "trounc" at the hands of a third party, the Elephant.{{sfnp\|Gates\|2004\|p=990}} The net effect of all of this is "the reversal of (the Lion's) status as the King of the Jungle."{{sfnp\|Gates\|2004\|p=991}} In this allegorical way, the "master's house" is dismantled when his own tools are turned against him.

	] is a trickster character who succeeds through his wits rather than through strength.]]
	Following in this tradition, critics since Gates have come to assert that another popular African American folk trickster, ] (a contraction of "Brother Rabbit"), uses clever language to perform the same kind of rebellious societal deconstruction as the Signifying Monkey. Brer Rabbit is the "creative way that the slave community responded to the oppressor's failure to address them as human beings created in the image of God."{{sfnp\|Earl\|1993\|p=131}}

	In the figurative representative of this slave community; Brer Rabbit is the hero with a "fragile body but a deceptively strong mind" that allows him to "create own symbols in defiance of the perverted logic of the oppressor."{{sfnp\|Earl\|1993\|p=131}}

	By twisting language to create these symbols, Brer Rabbit not only was the "personification of the ethic of self-preservation" for the slave community, but also "an alternative response to their oppressor's false doctrine of anthropology."{{sfnp\|Earl\|1993\|p=158}} Through his language of trickery, Brer Rabbit outwits his oppressors, deconstructing, in small ways, the hierarchy of subjugation to which his weak body forces him to physically conform.

	Before Gates, there was some precedent for the analysis of African American folk heroes as destructive agents of an oppressive hierarchical system. In the 1920s and 1930s, ] and ] engaged in an epistolary correspondence.<ref name=North77>North, Michael, ''The Dialect of Modernism: Race, Language, and Twentieth-Century Literature'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 77.</ref>

	Both writers signed the letters with pseudonyms adopted from the ] tales; Eliot was "];" Pound was "]." Pound and Eliot wrote in the same "African slave" dialect of the tales. Pound, writing later of the series of letters, distinguished the language from "the Queen's English, the language of public propriety."<ref name=North77 /> This rebellion against proper language came as part of "collaboration" between Pound and Eliot "against the London literary establishment and the language that it used."<ref name=North77 />

	Although Pound and Eliot were not attempting to overthrow an establishment as expansive as the one oppressing the African American slave community, they were actively trying to establish for themselves a new kind of literary freedom. In their usage of the ] trickster figures' names and dialects, they display an early understanding of the way in which cleverly manipulated language can dismantle a restrictive hierarchy.

	African American literary criticism and folktales are not the only place in the American literary tradition that tricksters are to be found combating subjugation from within an oppressive system: In, ''When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote'', the argument is posited that the Brer Rabbit stories were derived from a mixture of African and ], thus attributing part of the credit for the formation of the tales and wiles of Brer Rabbit to "Indian captivity narratives" and the rabbit trickster found in ].<ref name="Brennan">{{cite book\|last=Brennan\|first=Jonathan\|chapter=Introduction: Recognition of the African-Native American Literary Tradition\|title=When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote: African–Native American Literature\|editor-last=Brennan\|editor-first=Jonathan\|location=Urbana and Chicago\|publisher=University of Illinois Press\|year=2003\|pages=72–73}}</ref><ref>{{cite book\|last=Baringer\|first=Sandra K.\|chapter=Brer Rabbit and His Cherokee Cousin: Moving Beyond the Appropriation Paradigm\|title=When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote: African–Native American Literature\|editor-last=Brennan\|editor-first=Jonathan\|location=Urbana and Chicago\|publisher=University of Illinois Press\|year=2003\|page=116}}</ref>

			The ] on the other hand is a ] of a performer who intentionally displays their actions in public for an audience.
	In arguing for a merged "African–Native American folklore", the idea is forwarded that certain shared "cultural affinities" between African Americans and Native Americans allowed both groups "through the trickster tales…survive European American cultural and political domination."<ref name="Brennan"/>

	==In Native American tradition==		==Native American tradition==
	While the trickster crosses various cultural traditions, there are significant differences between tricksters ~~in the traditions of~~ different parts of the world:		While the trickster crosses various cultural traditions, there are significant differences between tricksters from different parts of the world:

	<blockquote>Many native traditions held ]s and tricksters as essential to any contact with the ]. People could not pray until they had laughed, because ] opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within the most sacred ] for fear that they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth.<ref>Byrd Gibbens, Professor of English at ]; quoted ] in '']'' by George Carlin, 2001</ref></blockquote>		<blockquote>Many native traditions held ]s and tricksters as essential to any contact with the ]. People could not pray until they had laughed, because ] opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within the most sacred ] for fear that they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth.<ref>Byrd Gibbens, Professor of English at ]; quoted ] in '']'' by George Carlin, 2001</ref></blockquote>
Line 76:		Line 32:

	Wakdjunga in ] mythology is an example of the trickster archetype.		Wakdjunga in ] mythology is an example of the trickster archetype.

			] (Wìsakedjàk in ], Wīsahkēcāhk(w) in ] and Wiisagejaak in ]) is a trickster figure in ] and ] Storytelling.

	===Coyote===		===Coyote===
Line 84:		Line 42:
	According to ] (and other Plains) tradition, Old Man Coyote impersonates the Creator: "Old Man Coyote took up a handful of mud and out of it made people".<ref></ref> He also bestowed names on buffalo, deer, elk, antelopes, and bear. According to A. Hultkranz, the impersonation of Coyote as Creator is a result of a taboo, a mythic substitute to the religious notion of the Great Spirit whose name was too dangerous and/or sacred to use apart from at special ceremonies.{{citation needed\|date=July 2015}}		According to ] (and other Plains) tradition, Old Man Coyote impersonates the Creator: "Old Man Coyote took up a handful of mud and out of it made people".<ref></ref> He also bestowed names on buffalo, deer, elk, antelopes, and bear. According to A. Hultkranz, the impersonation of Coyote as Creator is a result of a taboo, a mythic substitute to the religious notion of the Great Spirit whose name was too dangerous and/or sacred to use apart from at special ceremonies.{{citation needed\|date=July 2015}}

	In ] myths, Coyote belongs to the animal people but he is at the same time "a power just like the Creator, the head of all the creatures." while still being a subject of the Creator who can punish him or remove his powers.<ref>{{Cite book\|title=Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends\|last1=Edmonds~~\|last2=Clark~~\|first1=Margot\|~~first2~~=Ella E.\|publisher=Castle Books\|year=2003\|isbn=0785817166\|~~location=\|pages~~=\|url-access=registration\|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780785817161/page/5}}</ref> In the Pacific Northwest tradition, Coyote is mostly mentioned as a messenger, or minor power.		In ] myths, Coyote belongs to the animal people but he is at the same time "a power just like the Creator, the head of all the creatures." while still being a subject of the Creator who can punish him or remove his powers.<ref>{{Cite book\|title=Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends\|last1=Edmonds\|first1=Margot\|author2=Ella E. Clark\|publisher=Castle Books\|year=2003\|isbn=0785817166\|page=\|url-access=registration\|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780785817161/page/5}}</ref> In the Pacific Northwest tradition, Coyote is mostly mentioned as a messenger, or minor power.

	As the culture hero, Coyote appears in various mythic traditions, but generally with the same magical powers of transformation, resurrection, and "medicine". He is engaged in changing the ways of rivers, creating new landscapes and getting sacred things for people. Of mention is the tradition of Coyote fighting against monsters. According to Wasco tradition, Coyote was the hero to fight and kill ], the killer of people, but he could do that not because of his personal power, but due to the help of the Spirit Chief. In some stories, ] came to be by Coyote's efforts; in others, it is done by Raven.		As the culture hero, Coyote appears in various mythic traditions, but generally with the same magical powers of transformation, resurrection, and "medicine". He is engaged in changing the ways of rivers, creating new landscapes and getting sacred things for people. Of mention is the tradition of Coyote fighting against monsters. According to Wasco tradition, Coyote was the hero to fight and kill ], the killer of people, but he could do that not because of his personal power, but due to the help of the Spirit Chief. In some stories, ] came to be by Coyote's efforts; in others, it is done by Raven.
Line 90:		Line 48:
	More often than not Coyote is a trickster, but always different. In some stories, he is a noble trickster: "Coyote takes water from the Frog people... because it is not right that one people have all the water." In others, he is malicious: "Coyote determined to bring harm to Duck. He took Duck's wife and children, whom he treated badly."{{citation needed\|date=September 2016}}		More often than not Coyote is a trickster, but always different. In some stories, he is a noble trickster: "Coyote takes water from the Frog people... because it is not right that one people have all the water." In others, he is malicious: "Coyote determined to bring harm to Duck. He took Duck's wife and children, whom he treated badly."{{citation needed\|date=September 2016}}

			==Oral stories==
	==In Internet and multimedia studies==
			{{main\|List of fictional tricksters#Tricksters in folktale and mythology}}] in '']'': Tom Fashion, pretending to be Lord Foppington, parleys with Sir Tunbelly Clumsey in a 19th-century illustration by ].]]
	In online environments, there has been a link between the trickster and ]. Some have said that a trickster is a type of online community character.<ref>Campbell, J., Fletcher, G. & Greenhill, A. (2002). "Tribalism, Conflict and Shape-shifting Identities in Online Communities." In the Proceedings of the 13th Australasia Conference on Information Systems, Melbourne Australia, 7–9 December 2002</ref><ref>Campbell, J., Fletcher, G. and Greenhill, A. (2009). "", ''Information Systems Journal'', (19:5), pp. 461–478. {{doi\|10.1111/j.1365-2575.2008.00301.x}}.</ref>

			<!-- keep alphabetical -->
	Anthropologist James Cuffe has called the Chinese internet character ] (草泥马）a trickster candidate because of its duplicity in meaning.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book\|last=Cuffe\|first=James B.\|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351727501\|title=China at a Threshold: Exploring Social Change in Techno-Social Systems\|date=2019-11-28\|publisher=Routledge\|year=\|isbn=978-1-315-18322-0\|edition=1\|location=Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. {{!}} Series: Contemporary liminality\|pages=83 \|language=en\|doi=10.4324/9781315183220}}</ref> Cuffe argues the Grass Mud Horse serves to highlight the creative potential of the trickster archetype in communicating experiential understanding through symbolic narrative. The Grass Mud Horse relies on the interpretative capacity of storytelling in order to skirt internet censorship while simultaneously commenting on the experience of censorship in China. In this sense Cuffe proposes the Grass Mud Horse trickster as 'a heuristic cultural function to aid the perceiver to re-evaluate their own experiential understanding against that of their communities. By framing itself against and in spite of limits the trickster offers new coordinates by which one can reassess and judges one's own experiences.'<ref name=":0" />
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* Afro-Cuban mythology: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ] of African origin: ] (compare ] in the French-speaking Caribbean), ] (a corruption of ], also spelt 'Anansee', among other spellings)
			* ]: ], ]
			* ] folklore: ]
			* ]: ], ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ] mythology: ] (Tsuro or Kalulu)
			* ]: ]
			* Belgian mythology: ]
			* ]: ], ]
			* ]/]: ] (Itar Pejo), ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ], ], ]
			* ]: ] (Fox spirit), ], ], ] (Monkey King)
			* ] mythology: ]
			* Costa Rican folklore and literature: ] (Uncle Rabbit)
			* ] mythology: ]
			* ]: Awakkule, ]
			* ] folklore: ], ]
			* ]: ], ]
			* ]: ], ], ]
			* ]an mythology: ]
			* ] folklore: ]
			* ]: ] Fuchs, the ], ]
			* ]: ], ], ], ], ]
			* ]: ], ]
			* ]: ], ]
			* ]: Baby ] (stealing butter), ], ], ] (shapeshifting and teasing sages).
			* ] and ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]n folklore: ], or ] in modern orthography
			* ]: ]
			* ] folklore: ], ]
			* ]: ], ], ]
			* ]: ] (Sicily), ] (Naples)
			* ]: ], ], ], ], ]
			* ]: ] (Ashkenazi), ] (Sephardic)
			* Kazakh folklore: ]
			* ] folklore: ]
			* ]: ], ], ]
			* ]: ], ]
			* ] and ]: ] (Pedro Malasartes in Portuguese)
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ], ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ] mythology: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ], ], ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ] dancing: ]s
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ], ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ],
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: Lys Mykyta, ], ], ]
			* ]: ]
			* ]: ], ], ], ], ]
			* ]: ], ], ]
			* ]: ], ], ], ]<ref>{{cite web \|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/waleshistory/2011/06/twm_sion_cati_the_welsh_robin_hood.html \|title=Twm Sion Cati – the Welsh Robin Hood \|last=Carradice \|first=Phil\|author-link=Phil Carradice\|date=16 June 2011 \|publisher=] \|access-date=18 March 2021}}</ref>
			* ]n mythology: ], ]
			* ]: ]
			<!-- keep alphabetical -->

			==Literature and popular culture==
	==In oral stories==
			In modern literature, the trickster survives as a character archetype, not necessarily supernatural or divine, sometimes no more than a ].
	] in '']'': Tom Fashion, pretending to be Lord Foppington, parleys with Sir Tunbelly Clumsey in a 19th-century illustration by ].]]

			Often, the trickster is distinct in a story by their acting as a sort of catalyst; their antics are the cause of other characters' discomfiture, but they are left untouched. ]'s ] is an example of this.
	<!-- keep alphabetical -->
			Another once-famous example was the character ] on the early USA children's television show "Andy's Gang". A cigar-puffing puppet, Froggy induced the adult humans around him to engage in ridiculous and self-destructive hi-jinks.<ref>Smith, R. L. "".</ref>
	*]: ]

	*]: ]
			For example, many European ]s have a king who wants to find the best groom for his daughter by ordering several trials. No brave and valiant prince or knight manages to win them, until a poor and simple peasant comes. With the help of his wits and cleverness, instead of fighting, they evade or fool monsters, villains and dangers in unorthodox ways. Against expectations, the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the reward.{{citation needed\|date=November 2024}}
	*Afro-Cuban mythology: ]

	*]: ]
			More modern and obvious examples of the trickster archetype include ], the ] from Lewis Caroll's ], Jerry from ], ] from the Batman series, and ].<ref>https://storygrid.com/trickster-archetype/</ref><ref>https://vocal.media/geeks/a-filmmaker-s-guide-to-trickster-archetypes</ref>
	*]: ] (or Compere Lapin) and ], a corruption of Anansi (Anansee)

	*]: ], ]
			==Online and multimedia==
	*] folklore: ]
			In online environments, there has been a link between the trickster and ]. Some have said that a trickster is a type of online community character.<ref>Campbell, J., G. Fletcher & A. Greenhill (2002). "Tribalism, Conflict and Shape-shifting Identities in Online Communities." In the ''Proceedings of the 13th Australasia Conference on Information Systems'', Melbourne Australia, 7–9 December 2002.</ref><ref>Campbell, J., G. Fletcher and A. Greenhill (2009). "", ''Information Systems Journal'' (19:5), pp. 461–478. {{doi\|10.1111/j.1365-2575.2008.00301.x}}.</ref>
	*]: ], ]

	*]: ]
			] James Cuffe has called the Chinese internet character ] (''cǎonímǎ'' 草泥马) a trickster candidate because of its duplicity in meaning.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book\|last=Cuffe\|first=James B.\|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351727501\|title=China at a Threshold: Exploring Social Change in Techno-Social Systems\|date=2019-11-28\|publisher=]\|isbn=978-1-315-18322-0\|edition=1\|location=Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. {{!}} Series: Contemporary liminality\|pages=83 \|doi=10.4324/9781315183220\|s2cid=213224963 }}</ref> Cuffe argues the Grass Mud Horse serves to highlight the creative potential of the trickster archetype in communicating experiential understanding through symbolic narrative. The Grass Mud Horse relies on the interpretative capacity of storytelling in order to skirt internet censorship while simultaneously commenting on the experience of censorship in China. In this sense Cuffe proposes the Grass Mud Horse trickster as 'a ] cultural function to aid the perceiver to re-evaluate their own experiential understanding against that of their communities. By framing itself against and in spite of limits the trickster offers new coordinates by which one can reassess and judges one's own experiences.'<ref name=":0" />
	*]: ]
	*] mythology: ] (Tsuro or Kalulu)
	*]: ]
	*Belgian mythology: ]
	*]: ], ]
	*]/]: ] (Itar Pejo)
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ], ], ]
	*]: ] (Fox spirit), ], ], ] (Monkey King)
	*] mythology: ]
	*]: Awakkule, ]
	*] folklore: ], ]
	*]: ], ]
	*]: ], ], ]
	*]an mythology: ]
	*] folklore: ]
	*]: ] Fuchs, the ], ]
	*]: ], ], ], ], ], ]
	*]: ], ]
	*]: ], ]
	*]: Baby ] (stealing butter), ], ], ] (shapeshifting and teasing sages).
	*] and ]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]n folklore: ], or ] in modern orthography (spelling).
	*]: ]
	*] folklore: ], ]
	*]: ], ], ]
	*]: ] (Sicily), ] (Naples)
	*]: ], ], ], ], ]
	*]: ] (Ashkenazi), ] (Sephardic)
	*Kazakh folklore: ]
	*] folklore: ]
	*]: ], ]
	*]: ], ]
	*] and ]: ] (Pedro Malasartes in Portuguese)
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ], ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*] mythology: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ], ], ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*] dancing: ]s
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ], ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ],
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ]
	*]: ], ], ]
	*]: ], ], ]
	*]n mythology: ]
	<!-- keep alphabetical -->

	==See also==		==See also==
	<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order & add a short description ] -->		<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order & add a short description ] -->
	* ]		* ]
			* ] of Puerto Rico
	* ]'s ]
	* ]~~, the traditional Brazilian folklore trickster.~~		* ]
	* ]		* ]
	* ]		* ]
			* ]
	<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->		<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

	==References==		==References==
	{{reflist~~\|30em~~}}		{{reflist}}

	==Sources==		==Sources==
	{{refbegin}}		{{refbegin\|30em}}
	*{{citation\|last=Gates\|first=Henry\|title=The Blackness of Blackness: A Critique on the Sign and the Signifying Monkey\|journal=Literary Theory: An Anthology\|editor1 = Julie Rivkin\|editor2= Michael Ryan\|location=Oxford\|publisher= Blackwell Publishing\|year= 2004}}		*{{citation\|last=Gates\|first=Henry\|title=The Blackness of Blackness: A Critique on the Sign and the Signifying Monkey\|journal=Literary Theory: An Anthology\|editor1 = Julie Rivkin\|editor2= Michael Ryan\|location=Oxford\|publisher= Blackwell Publishing\|year= 2004}}
	*{{cite book\|last=Earl\|first=Riggins R., Jr.\|title=Dark Symbols, Obscure Signs: God, Self, And Community In ~~The~~ Slave Mind\|location=Maryknoll, New York\|publisher= Orbis Books\|year= 1993~~\|ref=harv~~}}		*{{cite book\|last=Earl\| first=Riggins R. Jr. \|title=Dark Symbols, Obscure Signs: God, Self, And Community in the Slave Mind\|location=Maryknoll, New York\|publisher= Orbis Books\|year= 1993}}
	*{{cite book\|last=Bassil-Morozow\|first= Helena\|title=The Trickster in Contemporary Film\|publisher=Routledge\|year= 2011}}		*{{cite book\|last=Bassil-Morozow\|first= Helena\|title=The Trickster in Contemporary Film\|publisher=Routledge\|year= 2011}}
	*{{cite journal\|first1=Franchot\|last1=Ballinger\|first2=Gerald\|last2=Vizenor\|~~authorlink2~~=Gerald Vizenor\|jstor=1184653\|title=Sacred Reversals: Trickster in Gerald Vizenor's 'Earthdivers: Tribal Narratives on Mixed Descent'\|journal=American Indian Quarterly\|volume=9\|number=1, ''The Literary Achievements of Gerald Vizenor''\|year=1985\|pages=55–59\|doi=10.2307/1184653}}		*{{cite journal\|first1=Franchot\|last1=Ballinger\|first2=Gerald\|last2=Vizenor\|author-link2=Gerald Vizenor\|jstor=1184653\|title=Sacred Reversals: Trickster in Gerald Vizenor's 'Earthdivers: Tribal Narratives on Mixed Descent'\|journal=American Indian Quarterly\|volume=9\|number=1, ''The Literary Achievements of Gerald Vizenor''\|year=1985\|pages=55–59\|doi=10.2307/1184653}}
	*{{cite journal\|first=Franchot\|last=Ballinger\|jstor=467321\|title=Ambigere: The Euro-American Picaro and the Native American Trickster\|journal=MELUS\|volume=17\|number=1, ''Native American Fiction: Myth and Criticism''\|year=1991\|pages=21–38\|doi=10.2307/467321~~\|ref=harv~~}}		*{{cite journal\|first=Franchot\|last=Ballinger\|jstor=467321\|title=Ambigere: The Euro-American Picaro and the Native American Trickster\|journal=MELUS\|volume=17\|number=1, ''Native American Fiction: Myth and Criticism''\|year=1991\|pages=21–38\|doi=10.2307/467321}}
	*{{cite journal\|first1=L. Bryce\|last1=Boyer\|first2=Ruth M.\|last2=Boyer\|jstor=1499465\|title=The Sacred Clown of the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches: Additional Data\|journal=Western Folklore\|volume=42\|number=1\|year=1983\|pages=46–54\|doi=10.2307/1499465}}		*{{cite journal\|first1=L. Bryce\|last1=Boyer\|first2=Ruth M.\|last2=Boyer\|jstor=1499465\|title=The Sacred Clown of the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches: Additional Data\|journal=Western Folklore\|volume=42\|number=1\|year=1983\|pages=46–54\|doi=10.2307/1499465}}
	* Datlow, Ellen and Terri Windling. 2009. ''The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales.'' Firebird.		* Datlow, Ellen and Terri Windling. 2009. ''The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales.'' Firebird.
	* ] creation story		* ] creation story
	* Joseph Durwin ''''		* Joseph Durwin ''''
	*{{cite journal \| last = Koepping\| first = Klaus-Peter \|year=1985\| title = Absurdity and Hidden Truth: Cunning Intelligence and Grotesque Body Images as Manifestations of the Trickster \| journal = History of Religions \| volume = 24 \| issue=3 \| pages = 191–214 \| jstor = 1062254\| doi = 10.1086/462997 }}		*{{cite journal \| last = Koepping\| first = Klaus-Peter \|year=1985\| title = Absurdity and Hidden Truth: Cunning Intelligence and Grotesque Body Images as Manifestations of the Trickster \| journal = History of Religions \| volume = 24 \| issue=3 \| pages = 191–214 \| jstor = 1062254\| doi = 10.1086/462997 \| s2cid = 162313598 }}
	*Lori Landay '''' 1998 University of Pennsylvania Press		*Lori Landay '''' 1998 University of Pennsylvania Press
	* Paul Radin ''The trickster: a study in American Indian mythology'' (1956)		* Paul Radin ''The trickster: a study in American Indian mythology'' (1956)
Line 205:		Line 179:

	==External links==		==External links==
	*{{~~Commonscatinline~~\|Tricksters}}		{{Commons category\|Tricksters}}
	*		*

Latest revision as of 01:35, 13 December 2024

Literary archetype For other uses, see Trickster (disambiguation).

The trickster figure Reynard the Fox as depicted in an 1869 children's book by Michel Rodange

In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior.

Mythology

Tricksters, as archetypal characters, appear in the myths of many different cultures. Lewis Hyde describes the trickster as a "boundary-crosser". The trickster crosses and often breaks both physical and societal rules: Tricksters "violate principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis."

Often, this bending and breaking of rules takes the form of tricks and thievery. Tricksters can be cunning or foolish or both. The trickster openly questions, disrupts and mocks authority.

Many cultures have tales of the trickster, a crafty being who uses tricks to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. In some Greek myths Hermes plays the trickster. He is the patron of thieves and the inventor of lying, a gift he passed on to Autolycus, who in turn passed it on to Odysseus. In Slavic folktales, the trickster and the culture hero are often combined.

Frequently the trickster figure exhibits gender and form variability. In Norse mythology the mischief-maker is Loki, who is also a shapeshifter. Loki also exhibits sex variability, in one case even becoming pregnant. According to "The Song of Hyndla" in The Poetic Edda, Loki becomes a mare who later gives birth to Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir.

In African-American folklore, a personified rabbit, known as Brer Rabbit, is the main trickster figure. In West Africa (and thence into the Caribbean via the slave trade), the spider (see Anansi) is often the trickster. In southern African a ǀKaggen is often the trickster, usually taking the form of a praying mantis.

Trickster or clown

The trickster is a term used for a non-performing "trick maker"; they may have many motives behind their intention but those motives are not largely in public view. They are internal to the character or person.

The clown on the other hand is a persona of a performer who intentionally displays their actions in public for an audience.

Native American tradition

While the trickster crosses various cultural traditions, there are significant differences between tricksters from different parts of the world:

Many native traditions held clowns and tricksters as essential to any contact with the sacred. People could not pray until they had laughed, because laughter opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within the most sacred ceremonies for fear that they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth.

Native American tricksters should not be confused with the European fictional picaro. One of the most important distinctions is that "we can see in the Native American trickster an openness to life's multiplicity and paradoxes largely missing in the modern Euro-American moral tradition". In some stories the Native American trickster is foolish and other times wise. He can be a hero in one tale and a villain in the next.

In many Native American and First Nations mythologies, the Coyote spirit (Southwestern United States) or Raven spirit (Pacific Northwest) stole fire from the gods (stars, moon, and/or sun). Both are usually seen as jokesters and pranksters. In Native American creation stories, when Coyote teaches humans how to catch salmon, he makes the first fish weir out of logs and branches.

Wakdjunga in Winnebago mythology is an example of the trickster archetype.

Wisakedjak (Wìsakedjàk in Algonquin, Wīsahkēcāhk(w) in Cree and Wiisagejaak in Oji-Cree) is a trickster figure in Algonquin and Chipewyan Storytelling.

Coyote

Main article: Coyote (mythology)

The Coyote mythos is one of the most popular among western Native American cultures, especially among indigenous peoples of California and the Great Basin.

According to Crow (and other Plains) tradition, Old Man Coyote impersonates the Creator: "Old Man Coyote took up a handful of mud and out of it made people". He also bestowed names on buffalo, deer, elk, antelopes, and bear. According to A. Hultkranz, the impersonation of Coyote as Creator is a result of a taboo, a mythic substitute to the religious notion of the Great Spirit whose name was too dangerous and/or sacred to use apart from at special ceremonies.

In Chelan myths, Coyote belongs to the animal people but he is at the same time "a power just like the Creator, the head of all the creatures." while still being a subject of the Creator who can punish him or remove his powers. In the Pacific Northwest tradition, Coyote is mostly mentioned as a messenger, or minor power.

As the culture hero, Coyote appears in various mythic traditions, but generally with the same magical powers of transformation, resurrection, and "medicine". He is engaged in changing the ways of rivers, creating new landscapes and getting sacred things for people. Of mention is the tradition of Coyote fighting against monsters. According to Wasco tradition, Coyote was the hero to fight and kill Thunderbird, the killer of people, but he could do that not because of his personal power, but due to the help of the Spirit Chief. In some stories, Multnomah Falls came to be by Coyote's efforts; in others, it is done by Raven.

More often than not Coyote is a trickster, but always different. In some stories, he is a noble trickster: "Coyote takes water from the Frog people... because it is not right that one people have all the water." In others, he is malicious: "Coyote determined to bring harm to Duck. He took Duck's wife and children, whom he treated badly."

Oral stories

Main article: List of fictional tricksters § Tricksters in folktale and mythology

Abenaki mythology: Azeban
Igbo folklore: Ekwensu
Afro-Cuban mythology: Eleggua, Eshu
Akan mythology: Kwaku Ananse
American folklore of African origin: Brer Rabbit (compare Compère Lapin in the French-speaking Caribbean), Aunt Nancy (a corruption of Anansi, also spelt 'Anansee', among other spellings)
Arabian mythology: Juha, Sinbad
Ashanti folklore: Anansi
Australian Aboriginal mythology: Bamapana, Crow
Aztec mythology: Huehuecoyotl
Babylonian mythology: Lilith
Bantu mythology: Hare (Tsuro or Kalulu)
Basque mythology: San Martin Txiki
Belgian mythology: Lange Wapper
Brazilian folklore: Saci, Curupira
Bulgarian/Macedonian folklore: Hitar Petar (Itar Pejo), Kuma Lisa
Caribbean folklore: Anansi
Celtic mythology: Fairy, Puck, puca
Chinese mythology: Huli jing (Fox spirit), Nezha, Red Boy, Sun Wukong (Monkey King)
Chukchi mythology: Kutkh
Costa Rican folklore and literature: Tío Conejo (Uncle Rabbit)
Cree mythology: Wisakedjak
Crow mythology: Awakkule, Mannegishi
Dutch folklore: Reynaert de Vos, Tijl Uilenspiegel
Egyptian mythology: Set, Isis
English folklore: Robin Hood, Puck, Brownies
Fijian mythology: Daucina
French folklore: Renart the Fox
German folklore: Reineke Fuchs, the Pied Piper, Till Eulenspiegel
Greek mythology: Eris, Prometheus, Hermes, Odysseus, Sisyphus
Haitian folklore: Anansi, Ti Malice
Hawaiian mythology: Kaulu, Kupua
Hindu mythology: Baby Krishna (stealing butter), Narada, Mohini, Hanuman (shapeshifting and teasing sages).
Hopi and Zuni mythology: Kokopelli
Igbo mythology: Mbeku
Indonesian folklore: Kantjil, or kancil in modern orthography
Inuit mythology: Amaguq
Irish folklore: Leprechauns, Briccriu
Islamic mythology: Iblis, Khidr, Nasreddin
Italian folklore: Giufà (Sicily), Pulcinella (Naples)
Japanese mythology: Kitsune, Susanoo, Kappa, Bake-danuki, Hare of Inaba
Jewish folklore: Hershele Ostropoler (Ashkenazi), Joha (Sephardic)
Kazakh folklore: Aldar kose
Kiowa folklore: Saynday
Korean folklore: Kumiho, Dokkaebi, Seokga
Lakota mythology: Iktomi, Heyoka
Latin American and Spanish folklore: Pedro Urdemales (Pedro Malasartes in Portuguese)
Levantine mythology: Yaw
Māori mythology: Māui
Mayan mythology: Maya Hero Twins, Kisin
Micronesian mythology: Olifat
Miwok mythology: Coyote
Nigerian mythology: Agadzagadza
Norse mythology: Loki
Norwegian mythology: Espen Askeladd
Northwest Caucasian mythology: Sosruko
Ohlone mythology: Coyote
Ojibwe mythology: Nanabozho
Philippine mythology: Nuno sa Punso, Tikbalang, Pilandok
Polynesian mythology: Maui
Pomo mythology: Coyote
Pueblos dancing: Koshares
Romanian mythology: Păcală
Russian folklore: Ivan the Fool
San Folklore: ǀKaggen
Slavic mythology: Veles
Spanish mythology: Don Juan, The Trickster of Seville
Sumerian religion: Enki
Tibetan folklore: Akhu Tönpa,
Thai folklore: Sri Thanonchai
Tumbuka mythology: Kalulu
Ukrainian folklore: Lys Mykyta, Oleksa Dovbush, Lysychka-sestrychka, Cossack Mamay
Ute mythology: Cin-an-ev
Vietnamese folklore: Trạng Quỳnh, Bang Bạnh – Xã Xệ – Lý Toét, Thằng Bờm, Cuội, Bác Ba Phi
Vodou: Papa Legba, Ti Malice, Baron Samedi
Welsh mythology: Gwydion, Taliesin, Morgan Le Fay, Twm Siôn Cati
West African mythology: Anansi, Tortoise
Yoruba religion: Eshu

Literature and popular culture

In modern literature, the trickster survives as a character archetype, not necessarily supernatural or divine, sometimes no more than a stock character.

Often, the trickster is distinct in a story by their acting as a sort of catalyst; their antics are the cause of other characters' discomfiture, but they are left untouched. Shakespeare's Puck is an example of this. Another once-famous example was the character Froggy the Gremlin on the early USA children's television show "Andy's Gang". A cigar-puffing puppet, Froggy induced the adult humans around him to engage in ridiculous and self-destructive hi-jinks.

For example, many European fairy tales have a king who wants to find the best groom for his daughter by ordering several trials. No brave and valiant prince or knight manages to win them, until a poor and simple peasant comes. With the help of his wits and cleverness, instead of fighting, they evade or fool monsters, villains and dangers in unorthodox ways. Against expectations, the most unlikely candidate passes the trials and receives the reward.

More modern and obvious examples of the trickster archetype include Bugs Bunny, the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Caroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Jerry from Tom and Jerry, Joker from the Batman series, and Pippi Longstocking.

Online and multimedia

In online environments, there has been a link between the trickster and Internet trolling. Some have said that a trickster is a type of online community character.

Anthropologist James Cuffe has called the Chinese internet character Grass Mud Horse (cǎonímǎ 草泥马) a trickster candidate because of its duplicity in meaning. Cuffe argues the Grass Mud Horse serves to highlight the creative potential of the trickster archetype in communicating experiential understanding through symbolic narrative. The Grass Mud Horse relies on the interpretative capacity of storytelling in order to skirt internet censorship while simultaneously commenting on the experience of censorship in China. In this sense Cuffe proposes the Grass Mud Horse trickster as 'a heuristic cultural function to aid the perceiver to re-evaluate their own experiential understanding against that of their communities. By framing itself against and in spite of limits the trickster offers new coordinates by which one can reassess and judges one's own experiences.'

References

^ Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Mattick, Paul (February 15, 1998). "Hotfoots of the Gods". The New York Times.
Baker, Houston A. (1972). Long Black Song: Essays in Black American Literature. University Press of Virginia. pp. 10–14. ISBN 9780813904030.
Haase, Donald (2008). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 31. ISBN 978-0-313-33441-2.
Bleek (1875) A brief account of Bushman folklore and other texts
Lewis-Williams, David (1997). "The mantis, the eland and the meerkats". African Studies. 56 (2): 195–216. doi:10.1080/00020189708707875.
Byrd Gibbens, Professor of English at University of Arkansas at Little Rock; quoted epigraph in Napalm and Silly Putty by George Carlin, 2001
Ballinger (1991), p. 21.
"Gold Fever California on the Eve- California Indians", Oakland Museum of California
Edmonds, Margot; Ella E. Clark (2003). Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends. Castle Books. p. 5. ISBN 0785817166.
Carradice, Phil (16 June 2011). "Twm Sion Cati – the Welsh Robin Hood". BBC. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
Smith, R. L. "Remembering Andy Devine".
https://storygrid.com/trickster-archetype/
https://vocal.media/geeks/a-filmmaker-s-guide-to-trickster-archetypes
Campbell, J., G. Fletcher & A. Greenhill (2002). "Tribalism, Conflict and Shape-shifting Identities in Online Communities." In the Proceedings of the 13th Australasia Conference on Information Systems, Melbourne Australia, 7–9 December 2002.
Campbell, J., G. Fletcher and A. Greenhill (2009). "Conflict and Identity Shape Shifting in an Online Financial Community", Information Systems Journal (19:5), pp. 461–478. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2575.2008.00301.x.
^ Cuffe, James B. (2019-11-28). China at a Threshold: Exploring Social Change in Techno-Social Systems (1 ed.). Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. | Series: Contemporary liminality: Routledge. pp. 83 . doi:10.4324/9781315183220. ISBN 978-1-315-18322-0. S2CID 213224963.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

Sources

Gates, Henry (2004), Julie Rivkin; Michael Ryan (eds.), "The Blackness of Blackness: A Critique on the Sign and the Signifying Monkey", Literary Theory: An Anthology, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Earl, Riggins R. Jr. (1993). Dark Symbols, Obscure Signs: God, Self, And Community in the Slave Mind. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books.
Bassil-Morozow, Helena (2011). The Trickster in Contemporary Film. Routledge.
Ballinger, Franchot; Vizenor, Gerald (1985). "Sacred Reversals: Trickster in Gerald Vizenor's 'Earthdivers: Tribal Narratives on Mixed Descent'". American Indian Quarterly. 9 (1, The Literary Achievements of Gerald Vizenor): 55–59. doi:10.2307/1184653. JSTOR 1184653.
Ballinger, Franchot (1991). "Ambigere: The Euro-American Picaro and the Native American Trickster". MELUS. 17 (1, Native American Fiction: Myth and Criticism): 21–38. doi:10.2307/467321. JSTOR 467321.
Boyer, L. Bryce; Boyer, Ruth M. (1983). "The Sacred Clown of the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches: Additional Data". Western Folklore. 42 (1): 46–54. doi:10.2307/1499465. JSTOR 1499465.
Datlow, Ellen and Terri Windling. 2009. The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales. Firebird.
California on the Eve – California Indians Miwok creation story
Joseph Durwin Coulrophobia & The Trickster
Koepping, Klaus-Peter (1985). "Absurdity and Hidden Truth: Cunning Intelligence and Grotesque Body Images as Manifestations of the Trickster". History of Religions. 24 (3): 191–214. doi:10.1086/462997. JSTOR 1062254. S2CID 162313598.
Lori Landay Madcaps, Screwballs, and Con Women: The Female Trickster in American Culture 1998 University of Pennsylvania Press
Paul Radin The trickster: a study in American Indian mythology (1956)
Allan J. Ryan The Trickster Shift: Humour and irony in contemporary native art 1999 Univ of Washington ISBN 0-7748-0704-0
Trickster's Way Volume 3, Issue 1 2004 Article 3 "Trickster and the Treks of History".
Tannen, R. S., The Female Trickster: PostModern and Post-Jungian Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Culture, Routledge, 2007

External links

Joel Chandler Harris and the Uncle Remus Collection

v t e Clowns
List of clowns / List of jesters
Types	Blackface Bouffon Chou Circus Evil Harlequin Heyoka Jester Mime Pierrot Pueblo Ritual Rodeo Scaramouche Silly Billy Skomorokh
Organizations	World Clown Association Clown Conservatory Clowns of America International The World Festival of Clowns in Yekaterinburg Loldiers of Odin Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army
Related	2016 clown sightings Clown alley Clown bicycle Clown car Clown Care Clown society Coulrophilia Juggalo Motley
Category

Stock characters

By ethics and morality

Heroes

Classic hero	Action hero Christ figure Chosen One Everyman Folk hero Knight-errant Legacy hero Mythological king Paladin Superhero Youngest son
Antihero	Byronic hero Man alone Tragic hero
Other	Cyberhero Super soldier Space marine

Rogues

Lovable rogue	Gentleman detective Jack Trickster
Tricky slave	Zanni (servants, clowns: Harlequin, Brighella, Scapino, Pulcinella and Pierrot)
Outlaw	Bad boy Gentleman thief Pirate Air pirate Space pirate
Other	Good cop/bad cop Rake

Villains

Antivillains	False hero
The mole	Double agent Evil twin Terrorist
Social Darwinist	Dark lord Mad scientist Supervillain
Monsters	Bug-eyed monster Evil clown Killer toy Monster girl Skeleton Slime Swamp monster Vampires Zombie Nazi zombies
Other	Alazon Archenemy Folk devil Igor Masked villain Miser Vecchio (wealthy old men, Pantalone and Il Dottore) Il Capitano (self styled captain, braggart)

By sex and gender

Feminine

Love interest	Bishōjo Blonde stereotype Farmer's daughter Girl next door Hooker with a heart of gold Ingénue Loosu ponnu Magical girlfriend Catgirl Monster girl Manic Pixie Dream Girl Vixen
Hag	Cat lady Crone Fairy godmother La Ruffiana Loathly lady
Hawksian woman	Dragon Lady Femme fatale Tsundere
Woman warrior	Jungle girl Magical girl Virago
Queen bee	Princesse lointaine Southern belle Valley girl Yamato nadeshiko
LGBT	Class S Laotong
Lady-in-waiting	Columbina Mammy stereotype
Geek girl	Gamer girl
Damsel in distress	Final girl Princess and dragon

Masculine

Harlequin	Pierrot Scaramouche
Father figure	Wise old man Elderly martial arts master
Young	American mappillai Himbo Ivan the Fool Jack Jock Little Johnny Nice guy Nice Jewish boy Superfluous man
Prince Charming	Bishōnen Knight-errant
Primitive	Feral child Noble savage Caveman Mountain man
LGBT	Seme and uke Otokonoko
Bad boy	Pachuco Black knight

Others
Adolescent clique Barbarian Clown Dragonslayer Donor Fool Identity formation Imaginary friend Innamorati ("The Lovers") Little green men Magical Negro Mole people Pop icon Redshirt Shoulder angel Sidekick Straight man Tokenism Town drunk Tragic mulatto Truck-kun Village idiot White savior

Categories: