Tricksters: A Study in American Indian Mythology.

To finish up this week of secondary trickster literature, it's a groundbreaking study of Native American trickster traditions by anthropologist Paul Radin: The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology.

The Winnebago Trickster Cycle occupies the first 60 pages of the book, followed by the Winnebago Hare Cycle, which takes up another 30 pages. He also provides detailed summaries of the Assiniboine Trickter and Tlingit Trickster myths. There then follow 60 pages of analysis from Radin, along with a 20-page essay by Karl Kerenyi about parallels with ancient Greek trickster traditions, and a 20-page essay by Jung on the psychology of the trickster figure.

You can find out more about Radin's life and career at Wikipedia. He was born in 1883, and the trickster materials here in this book are from work he did with the Hocąk (Winnebago) people around 1910. 

Later in his career, Radin began doing comparative work on indigenous storytelling traditions in other parts of the world, especially Africa. You might remember this important anthology of African stories and sculptures which he published in 1952: African Folktales and Sculpture (the 1962 edition has only the text):

You can read more about that book in this blog post, and all of these books are just a click away at the Internet Archive, along with more books and other publications by Radin. Enjoy! 

The Trickster: A Study in
American Indian Mythology.

by Paul Radin

Tricksters: When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote

As I shift from African American to Native American tricksters in the secondary literature review this week, this book maps that intersection beautifully: When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote: African-Native American Literature, edited by Jonathan Brennan.

Brennan, who is a professor of English at Mission College in Santa Clara, California, explains the book's purpose and its title in the preface: "At the crossroads, the meeting place of runaway African slaves and displaced Indians, of oral and written traditions, of the human and the divine, of meaning and indeterminacy, of the past and the future, we find a liminal space of mixed-race Black Indian identity and culture where the longest unwritten chapter in American history is written (and spoken). African-Native American literature becomes a possibility when the trickster interprets between worlds, when understanding meets truth, when Brer Rabbit meets Coyote."

In the introduction, Brennan provides a detailed survey (almost 100 pages long!) of the back-and-forth between African and Native folk traditions: "Introduction: Recognition of the African-Native American Literary Tradition." There then follow two essays on African-Native American folklore:  "On the Interaction of Traditions: Southeastern Rabbit Tales as African-Native American Folklore" by David Elton Gay and "Brer Rabbit and His Cherokee Cousin: Moving Beyond the Appropriation Paradigm" by Sandra K. Baringer. The other essay sections cover captivity and slave narratives, Mardi Gras performances, and contemporary culture.

So, I'll be back tomorrow with more about Native American trickster traditions! Meanwhile, enjoy Brennan's book; it is a fantastic resource:

When Brer Rabbit Meets Coyote:
African-Native American Literature

by Jonathan Brennan

Tricksters: From Trickster to Badman

Following up on Henry Louis Gates yesterday, I wanted to share this important book on the legacy of African tricksters in the Americas: From Trickster to Badman: The Black Folk Hero in Slavery and Freedom by John W. Roberts.

The book is divided into four chapters: Br'er Rabbit and John: Trickster Heroes in Slavery ~ The Power Within: The Conjurer as Folk Hero ~ Christian Soldiers All: Spirituals as Heroic Expression ~ "You Done Me Wrong": The Badman as Outlaw Hero. Roberts provides what he calls an Afrocentric approach to the formation of Black folk heroes: "When we encounter the African American folk hero, we meet a figure whose actions reflect the transformed and, in some ways, transmuted values of African people shaped by situations and conditions in America." And, as the opening chapter shows, the African trickster tradition as it took shape dynamically in the Americas is a crucial part of the formation of the African American folk hero tradition.

So, there is lots of read and ponder here, and I would suggest as a companion text, the fantastic book by William Bascom: African Folktales in the New World, which documents in abundance the African folktales that were told and retold in the Americas: 

Next time I'll be back with more about trickster traditions in the Americas, looking at Indigenous traditions and also the ways in which African and Indigenous traditions came together, especially in the southeastern United States. More on that tomorrow! Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy today's book:

From Trickster to Badman:
The Black Folk Hero
in Slavery and Freedom
by John W. Roberts

Tricksters: The Signifying Monkey

After yesterday's book about tricksters of western Africa, I wanted to follow up with this groundbreaking book: The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African American Literary Criticism by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., just a click away at the Internet Archive.

This book, published in 1988, won the American Book Award, and it has its own Wikipedia article. Gates's interests in this book are more literary than folkloric, but the idea of the trickster is an essential part of the notion of "signifying" that Gates develops and then applies to the works of Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston and Ishmael Reed. The Yoruba trickster Eshu played an important role in yesterday's book, and he's back again here in Part One of Gates's book: A Myth of Origins: Esu-Elegbara and the Signifying Monkey. In this chapter, Gates looks at the Middle Passage and what it means for the Africans captured and enslaved to bring their culture with them, and how a new African culture emerged in the Americas. Both Eshu and the Signifying Monkey have Wikipedia chapters of their own too!

So, jump in and enjoy Gates's adventure of intellectual discovery as narrated in this book; if you enjoy Part One about the tricksters, then just keep on reading.

The Signifying Monkey:

A Theory of African American Literary Criticism

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

From Trickster to Badman:

The Black Folk Hero in Slavery and Freedom

by John W. Roberts

Tricksters: Trickster in West Africa

For this week's trickster books, I'm focusing on important secondary literature about tricksters. Yesterday's book by Lewis Hyde took a global perspective, whereas today's book zooms in on tricksters of western African cultures: The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight by Robert Doane Pelton.

Robert Doane Pelton (1935-2020) was a Catholic priest who studied at McGill University and then completed a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago Divinity School. In this book based on his 1974 doctoral dissertation, Pelton examines four different West African traditions: Ananse stories from the Ashanti of Ghana, Legba stories from the Fon of Benin, Eshu stories from the Yoruba of Nigeria and Ogo-Yurugu stories from the Dogon of Mali. He also provides an introductory overview of scholarship on trickster traditions, plus his own theory of the trickster as inspired by these African traditions. 

For more about the book, here's a review by Michael Atwood Mason, who served as the Director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

I'll be back tomorrow with more on tricksters in Africa and in the African Diaspora, and then I'll move on to trickster traditions in Native American cultures. Meanwhile, here's Pelton's book for your reading pleasure, just a click away at the Internet Archive!

 The Trickster in West Africa:
A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight
by Robert Doane Pelton

Tricksters: Trickster Makes This World

For this week of trickster books, I've decided to highlight some useful secondary resources, i.e. books about tricksters, rather than actual trickster story books. Of course, you will also find lots of stories along the way in these secondary resources also. I'll start with a study of tricksters that includes tricksters from all over the world: Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art by Lewis Hyde.

This book is a wide-ranging account of trickster figures from many different cultures, and Hyde provides in-depth analysis of each, paying special attention to the social and mythical dimensions of the stories. He starts with his own first awareness of trickster through the figure of Coyote, and in addition to the mythical European tricksters Hermes and Loki, Hyde pays special attention to the African trickster Legba. He doesn't spend as much time as I would like on Rabbit, Tortoise, and Spider, but in a sense that is what makes the book more valuable for me, as Hyde focuses on different tricksters than the ones who preoccupy me, so that means I learned a lot from this book. Highly recommended!

There are some Lewis Hyde videos you can find at YouTube too; here's a talk on tricksters that he gave back in 2017:

So whether tricksters are new to you or whether you are already well versed in these stories, I am sure you will learn lots from Hyde's book too!

Trickster Makes This World:
Mischief, Myth, and Art
by Lewis Hyde