"Native American Trickster Tales"

This blog is comprised of my notes on the headnote for trickster tales as presented in the seventh edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A.

Text Notes:

• "trickster" - a term of somewhat vague origins used to describe a character who is "wandering, bawdy, gluttonous, and obscene" (72).  A trickster is usually male and sexually alligned, and though he is "selfish, amoral, foolish, destrcutive, and [...] given to duping others," his attitude against order is often 'new' because he is often one who helped to establish the original world order (72).  
• Trickster tales are some of the most ancient stories in Native American culture and have probably survived becasue they both instruct and please the listeners/readers.
• Culteral context enhances the enjoyment from trickster tales because they are not merely etiological.
• Like any tale in oral tradition, trickster tales may be different from one telling to another.
• The Norton editors encourage readers to try not to let their modern ideas of tricksters or the tricksters present in other cultural tales influence their readings of the Native American ones.