TRICKSTER AND HERO from University of Wisconsin Press at the Book Checkout

TRICKSTER AND HERO
TRICKSTER AND HERO
Subtitle:
Two Characters in the Oral and Written Traditions of the World
Book Category:
Literary Criticism > General
Author:
Scheub, Harold
Binding:
Paperback
ISBN 10:
0-299-29074-3
ISBN 13:
978-0-299-29074-0
Price:
USD 29.95
Publication Year:
2013

Publisher Info

Lindsey Meier,

University of Wisconsin Press,
1930 Monroe St.,
Madison ,
Wisconsin - 53711,
USA
Web: uwpress.wisc.edu

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Book Description

The trickster and the hero, found in so many of the world's oral traditions, are seemingly opposed but often united in one character. Trickster and Hero provides a comparative look at a rich array of world oral traditions, folktales, mythologies, and literatures--from The Odyssey, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and Beowulf to Native American and African tales. Award-winning folklorist Harold Scheub explores the "Trickster moment," the moment in the story when the tale, the teller, and the listener are transformed: we are both man and woman, god and human, hero and villain. Scheub delves into the importance of trickster mythologies and the shifting relationships between tricksters and heroes. He examines protagonists that figure centrally in a wide range of oral narrative traditions, showing that the true hero is always to some extent a trickster as well. The trickster and hero, Scheub contends, are at the core of storytelling, and all the possibilities of life are there: we are taken apart and rebuilt, dismembered and reborn, defeated and renewed.

 
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Book Review and Awards

"Trickster and Hero is a remarkable work. Learned, it speaks to any reader; complex, it doesn't simplify the difficulties of its object and aim; comparatist, it avoids judgment in the representation of diverse cultures. This is a contemporary work done by a scholar who is very attentive to the history of the field."--V-Y Mudimbe, Duke University

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