Why do we like the bad boy Bart Simpson, cheer on Scheherazade in 1001 Nights, root for Odysseus' ruses to work against the Cyclops, and laugh with the African Anansi, the Native American Coyote, the Norse Loki, and the Chinese Monkeys in their escapades? How do we account for the wide and enduring appeal of tricksters in diverse cultures, past and present, including ours? In exploring these questions, we will begin with stories of individual tricksters, focusing especially on the socially transgressive nature of their trickery, and what such transgression tells us about a society's values and assumptions. In many cases, we will find that tricksters are not merely clever and irresponsible, but in fact deeply responsive to the conditions of political existence. Turning from trickster narratives to trickster narrators, we will analyze a number of texts in which the narrator plays games with audiences, unsettling conventional expectations and social complacencies. We will identify just what narrative ruses these narrators use and what designs they have on audiences. While class discussions will provide occasions for sharing ideas about stories and narrators, in written assignments students will have the chance to practice and develop skills of critical analysis, research, and communication. A final course objective is to help students build a knowledge base from which to understand the values and assumptions informing our own sense as social agents in a multicultural world.

Possible texts:

• Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven
• Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber
• Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator
• Michael Moore, Roger and Me
• William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
• A number of trickster stories and critical essays will be available on Electronic Reserves.

Assignments:

• In addition to active participation in class discussion, students will be responsible for weekly quizzes and short writings, a group inquiry project, and two essays.