![]() And hey, from a structural point of view, fair enough-when you’re putting a theory together you want to narrow your focus as much as you can. So, even if female characters show Trickster traits (for example the Greek Baubo, who used a very Trickstery combo of cleverness and bawdy humour to make Demeter laugh, thus bringing back spring and lowkey saving the world) he can’t consider them under his rubric unless they have an elaborated career of trickery to match their masculine counterparts. ![]() But one or two episodes do not make a trickster. I say this because it is not hard to think of women who have pulled a trick or two lying, stealing, and shameless behaviour are not masculine essences. My own reading has turned up two or three, but before I speak of them I should say that my own sense of the category “trickster” calls for a mythic figure with an elaborated career of trickery. There’s even a whole appendix at the back of Trickster Makes This World titled ‘Trickster and Gender’ where he elaborates on his reasons to not discuss any female Tricksters in the book. Now, to be fair to Hyde, it’s not like he yells “no girls allowed!” and shuts down all discussion of the subject at that. But does this need to be the case? There are plenty of folks-including one particular writer I’ll be looking at today-who say “c’mon, my guy” and disagree. Lewis Hyde-whose book Trickster Makes This World I’ve quoted a few times in this series-quite confidently declared that “All the standard tricksters are male”. These are all Trickster gods rather than goddesses. The most famous mythological Tricksters discussed in the field and in popular culture tend to come from the following list: Norse Loki, Greek Hermes, West African Anansi, Polynesian Maui, and various versions of the archetype that appear in Native American mythology in the form of the Coyote, Raven, and Hare characters. Well, as my focus shifts from Heroes to Tricksters, the same issues crop up. I spent my 2017 academic year picking a fight with Joseph Campbell and his blithe assumption that The Hero can only ever be a dude.
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