Mythical Trickster Figures: Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms

by William J. Hynes, William G. Doty (Editor)

The first substantial collection of essays about the trickster since 1955

Mythical Trickster Figures , is the first substantial collection of essays about the trickster to appear since Radin’s 1955 The Trickster . Contributions by leading scholars treat a wide range of manifestations of this mischievous character, ranging from the Coyote of the American Southwest to such African figures as Eshu-Elegba and Ananse, the Japanese Susa-no-o, the Greek Hermes, Christian adaptations of Saint Peter, and examples found in contemporary American fiction and drama.

The many humorous trickster stories included are fascinating in themselves, but Hynes and Doty also highlight the wide range of features of the trickster—the figure whose comic appearance often signifies that the most serious cultural values are being both challenged and enforced.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 1993

Reviews

[Aicha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminds me of how pretentious academia can be sometimes.
I really enjoyed the first three essays and the concluding one. The ones in-between (the contributions) were not for me.
They were mainly critiques of previous studies, and that's not what I need at the moment.
Add to that the unnecessary complexity and wordiness, it really put me off at times.

I'd say the chapters mentioned above are definitely worth the read, and if you are interested in the trickster archetype, do give them a chance.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got some useful ideas from this book, but overall, I just found a lot of the authors to have very sloppy methodology, trying to paint with broad strokes where no such method was necessary or appropriate. Often tell and not show.

[Oliver Ho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the previous book, this was overly academic and often unnecessarily dense and verbose. There were still some useful insights, and it's an interesting, direct follow-up/response to the previous book I read. But I don't know that I'll ever come back to this one.