Tricksters in World Culture: Mockery, Subversion, Rebellion

Catalog description

Tricksters constitute one of the universal themes or tropes in mythology and folklore of many cultures. Through the discussions of ancient Greek, Native-American, African, Paleo-Asiatic, Scandinavian, African-American, Muslim and Jewish myths and folklore about tricksters, the course will telescope the cultural functions of the comedic transgression as a form of social critique; it will also highlight cynicism, its productive and dangerous aspects. Then we’ll introduce different historical subtypes of tricksters, such as a fool, jester, holy fool, kynik, picaro, con artist, female and queer tricksters, thus moving through premodern and early modern periods. Each type of the trickster is illustrated by literary examples from different world cultures (European and non-European alike) as well as theoretical works of Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Peter Sloterdijk. Finally, the role of the trickster in modernity will be discussed through the case of Soviet tricksters, who had become true superstars manifesting the resistance to repressive political ideology by the means of “cynical reason”. The class consists of lectures and group discussions. On Wednesday there will be a lecture for all students; on Monday you will be divided into 3 sections and have separate sessions (all three at the same time in different rooms) led by Teaching Assistants. YOU HAVE TO REGISTER FOR A DISCUSSIONS SESSION AS A SEPARATE COURSE WITH 0 POINTS. Assignments for group discussions are listed on the syllabus along with others. This course is a co-requisite of RUSS UN3232