Trickster

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The god Loki is a sly trickster in Norse mythology .

Tricksters are characters in mythology or literature who use tricks to disrupt the order in the ( divine ) universe .

In mythology, the trickster figure usually acts for moral reasons - he often acts as a cultural hero , someone who accomplishes a great deed with fundamental social consequences, for example by explaining agriculture to people or bringing fire.

The typical tricksters can be recognized by their ambivalent character. On the one hand they break the rules to do good to people, but on the other hand they also break the rules to provoke conflicts (mostly between the gods).

Depending on the origin mythology, they are described as animal figures , (demi) gods or spirits .

etymology

Trickster is derived from the English word trick , which in turn comes from French: The dialect word trique stands for "Fraud, trick". The French verb tricher means “to cheat while playing”. Tricher has its origin in the vulgar Latin verb triccare .

In the 19th century, Benjamin Disraeli took up the word to describe a political opponent as a liar. In the 20th century, Trickster developed into a term that describes both characters in European literature and non-European ethnological phenomena. The term denotes a divine or mythical figure endowed with supernatural properties , which is characterized primarily by its cunning, but also by its stupid nature; such figures have taken many forms around the world. In German, the term is often translated as “divine rascal”. The ethnological figure was first introduced in 1868 by the myth collector Daniel Garrison Brinton in his book Myths of a New World .

In today's everyday German language, often only the term Trickser (without “t”) is used - in the sense of a “person who uses tricks”. In English, however, the form Trickster applies to everyday as well as literary meaning.

reception

Paul Radin , Karl Kerényi and Carl Gustav Jung published the Winnebago 's cycle of rascals in 1954 under the title The Divine Rascal . Radin writes about the rogue (and thus synonymous with the trickster) in his foreword:

“Hardly any other myth has such a worldwide distribution as the one known under the name Der Schelm [...]. Few myths can be so confidently asserted that they are among the oldest forms of human expression, and few other myths have preserved their original content so unchanged. The roguish myth exists in a clearly recognizable form both among the simplest indigenous peoples and among the more developed peoples; we find it among the ancient Greeks, the Chinese, the Japanese, and in the Semitic world. Many of the rogue trains repeat themselves in the shape of the medieval juggler and live on to this day in the Hanswurst of the puppet theater and in the clown. Although repeatedly combined with other myths and often rebuilt and redrawn in drastic ways, the basic plot always seems to have prevailed. "

CG Jung described the figure of the trickster as "a faithful image of a consciousness that is still undifferentiated in every respect and which corresponds to a psyche that has barely outgrown the animal level"; he thus represents a "collective shadow figure". Paradoxically, similar to the naive " stupid " in fairy tales, often leading to salvation, from a mythological point of view it is also "a forerunner of the savior":

“The trickster is a 'cosmic' primordial being of a divine-animal nature, on the one hand superior to humans due to their superhuman qualities, on the other hand inferior due to their irrationality and unconsciousness. He is also not up to the animal because of his remarkable lack of instinct and clumsiness. These defects characterize its human nature, which is less adapted to the environmental conditions than an animal, but the expectation for a much higher development of consciousness, that is, a considerable thirst for learning, which is also duly emphasized by the myth. "

Marie-Louise von Franz emphasized the cunningly unmasking and thus ultimately helpful function of the trickster in fairy tales. From a psychological point of view, the trickster figure often acts as a confusing mirror of a consciousness that has been set in an unpleasant tricky way: so that the deceptive person sees himself cheated in the end.

As many efforts as there may be to describe a “trickster category”, their limitations contradict the idea of ​​the trickster figure itself, as William J. Hynes aptly describes:

“The sheer wealth of trickster phenomena can easily lead one to believe that the trickster is indefinable. To define means to draw boundaries, and tricksters seem amazingly resistant to limitations. They are compulsive border crossers. "

characterization

I am the spirit that always denies! / And rightly so; because everything that arises / is worth it to perish; / So it would be better if nothing happened. / So everything you call sin, / destruction, in short evil, / is my real element. - Mephistopheles ; Quote from: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust. A tragedy.

The trickster is a very ambivalent figure. He embodies the principle of the union of opposites and is close to the self in this regard . He is neither good nor bad, he is cunning and at the same time a fool. In every facet of his work he becomes a representative of the ambiguity of life. According to William J. Hynes (1993), six basic characteristics can be determined that occur in many trickster characters, although not all characteristics have to be present in one expression:

  1. Ambiguity (two-sidedness), anomaly (deviation from the norm) and polyvalence (ambiguity) (see also: adaptability )
  2. Fraudsters and cardsharps ( jugglers , card players, magicians )
  3. Shapeshifter , master of transformation / deception ( metamorphosis )
  4. Reverser or changer of a situation ( motivator , revolutionary )
  5. Messenger and / or imitator of deities
  6. “Bricoleur” (French hobbyist, tinkerer, inventor) - a term from Lévi-Strauss , s. a. Bricolage .

The trickster is also portrayed as unlucky or cheated - for example, in one story, the prank of a hummingbird who claims to be able to teach him to fly is fatally undoing.
He is greedy (and often impatient) in every respect: for food, for life, for knowledge and he has an enormous libido . He usually reaches the goals of his greed through violence, cunning or deception. So the myths of the trickster are not only amusing, but can also be very brutal, for example when he murders, rapes, regards children as a meal or experiments, regardless of the consequences .

On the psychology of the cartoon character, CG Jung writes:

“As Paul Radin explains, the process of civilization begins within the trickster cycle itself, which clearly indicates that the original situation has been overcome. At least the marks of deepest unconsciousness fall away from him: instead of acting brutally, cruelly, stupidly and senselessly, the trickster begins to do something useful and meaningful towards the end of the cycle. This already reveals the devaluation of earlier unconsciousness within the myth. One wonders, however, what happens to the trickster's bad properties. The naive observer probably assumes that when the dark aspects disappear, they really are no longer there. However, experience has shown that this is not the case. What really happens is that the consciousness can free itself from the fascination of the evil and is no longer compelled to live it compulsively, but the dark and evil has not gone up in smoke, but has withdrawn into the unconscious as a result of loss of energy, where it is unconscious lingers as long as everything is well in consciousness. "

A mythologist in the theater

The articles Trickster # A mythologist in theater and acting style # Comoediant style overlap thematically. Help me to better differentiate or merge the articles (→  instructions ) . To do this, take part in the relevant redundancy discussion . Please remove this module only after the redundancy has been completely processed and do not forget to include the relevant entry on the redundancy discussion page{{ Done | 1 = ~~~~}}to mark. Norms A. ( Discussion ) 5:15 p.m., May 4, 2015 (CEST)

Who are the tricksters? This designation was introduced by American anthropologists and cultural sociologists to name a mythologist that can be found in numerous cultural areas around the world, but above all has been studied and analyzed in detail among the native tribes of North America.

The term proved to be more resilient and flexible than others over the course of the 20th century and became a real world literary term for transmission of all times and regions. The trickster is often a central character in numerous creation myths , mostly oral traditions in the form of epic cycles.

“Some tricksters are mighty gods (or saints) like Eshu-Elegba who are worshiped and sacrificed; Most of the trickster figures are cultural heroes of a fluctuating past, in whose shape people and animals could still exchange their present-day attributions 'in statu nascendi' through transformations, pranks, deceptions and amateurism of all kinds; and this deceptive prehistory often protrudes through the respective outside world into everyday life. "

Translated into German, the name means something like rogue, rogue, booby, fraudster, and you can already see from this that the trickster is by no means to be regarded as a uniformly defined phenomenon. So for example, writes Michael Sakamoto in the context of the Japanese butoh - dance theater : "to speak of tricksters - love especially supposed, real life 'examples - is to confuse, convolute, and multiply diverge from any single definition."

But what exactly is the essence of a trickster? According to Walter Hirschberg, the trickster can be a kind of antagonist of the highest beings. He acts on their behalf and is then mostly blamed for the existence of evil and imperfection in the world. Paul Radin sees the Trickster symbol as “vague memories of an archaic past, where there was no clear distinction between the divine and the non-divine.” He regards the Trickster as a psychological problem, as an attempt by people to solve their internal and external problems.

But what do they all have in common? One can try to approach and solve this question from two sides, but then one quickly becomes entangled in the two thresholds of structuring: 'structure' and 'anti-structure'. That's because the trickster knows no boundaries. They only exist so that he can transcend them, reconstruct them and ultimately destroy them.

“Change is part of the essence of the trickster. They are amoral and behave as erratic as they are moody. They are (or feel) neither obliged to deities nor to any rules of consistent behavior; the actual circumstances are their only command to act. Almost by definition, they slip into different masks as the situation demands of them. (Tricksters essentialize change. They are amoral and behave as incoherently as they please. They are not (or do not consider themselves) beholden to deities or any rules of consistent behavior, real circumstances being their only mandate for action. Almost by definition, they adopt different personae as situations call for them.) "

But what does a trickster look like and where does it come from? Often one finds him in animal form, mostly combined with the ability to change his form and also to take on human form. But the opposite case can also be found with other trickster characters, who are primarily human - an old man or weak child - and can also slip into animal form. He can also have animal or human companions or siblings. His origins are mostly in the dark: he does not know his parents, he is often raised by an old man or woman.

But how did the figure of the trickster come to be seen as a mythologist in modern European theater? You can see this most clearly in the funny characters in the theater who have their direct ancestors in the trickster figures of antiquity. These include Hanswurst , Kasperl and clown as well as Harlequin , Schelm , Petruschka and Pierrot . The figures by Lazzi and Zanni from the Commedia dell'arte also fall into this category.

As a fool and a stupid hero, the trickster appears as a juggler in the Middle Ages and also plays a role in medieval church customs. In the 16th century the trickster appeared as a funny character in profane Italian comedy and has since become an integral part of the theater landscape. A suitable example is Papageno , a character from Mozart's Magic Flute . In an interview with Tamino, the latter defends his identity as a person with great enthusiasm, as he knows about his bird shape:

“A double being of mysterious origin, but due to his highly human, appetizing desires a trust-inspiring, popular type. He is stupid, stumbling in an unfamiliar environment very clumsily from one breakdown to the next. "

Like all tricksters, he is also a mediator, destined to overcome a duality. He is the colorfully plumed rogue who navigates with his magic weapon of the carillon between the powers of darkness and light.

Gerda Baumbach uses the term trickster in connection with the comedy style as a practice of the double place . This style is characterized by “maximum mobility” and “displaceability” as well as the ability to jump between “fiction level” and “reality level”.

In the Commedia dell'arte or Commedia all'improviso (improvised comedy), Commedia delle maschere (mask comedy) and Commedia dei Zanni (comedy of the servants), which were created in the 16th and 17th centuries, according to Domenica Radulescu, the possibility of improvisation applies and the professionalism and imagination of the actors' troops as the most important definition criteria. This peculiarity of improvisation is also described by Theresa J. Faherty as follows:

" Shakespeare did not find the trickster-servant in Cinthio, but the Italian theater is crowded with them. In commedia, where quick wit prevails, and the ability to improvise on a restrictive or unfavorable state of affairs within the plot is the sine qua non of success, tricky valet roles (zanni) are the most numerous. According to folk etymology, their lazzi (interpolated bits of comic business), are the snares or knots that hold the total performance together. "

Erhard Schüttpelz, who in “The Trickster” primarily refers to Claude Lévi-Strauss ' Die Structure der Mythen , sees the most important function of the trickster in conveying and overcoming duplicity or duality by moving the trickster figure “from figure to figure “Jumps. Claude Lévi-Strauss describes this polarity of the trickster as follows:

"Thus, the mediating function of the trickster explains that since its position is halfway between two polar terms he must retain something of that duality, namely an ambiguous and equivocal character. But the trickster is not the only conveivable form of mediation; some myths seem to devote themselves to the task of exhausting all the possible solutions to the problem of bridging the gap between two and one. "

Caterina Biancolelli as Colombina (engraving by Leroux, 1686)

From this it can be concluded that the duality or ambivalence of the character of the mythological figure of the trickster - as defined by Lévi-Strauss - leads to a certain volatility in the theater between “actor” and “fictional figure” - as Baumbach describes it. According to Baumbach, the “fictional character” has a “cultural memory due to the mythical, legendary and playful existence of a corresponding structural figure (trickster) of old age”, which she uses and is also reflected in her “(art) name”. An example of this is Alberto Naseli as “Zan Ganassa” or Isabella Andreini and her fictional character “Isabella”.

Another female trickster figure, “ Colombina ” by Caterina Biancolleli, is analyzed by Domenica Radulescu in “Caterina's Colombina: The Birth of a Female Trickster in Seventeenth-Century France”. Colombina was a popular Commedia dell'arte female trickster character created by Isabella Andreini, later played by Caterina's grandmother Isabella Biancolleli, and then, according to Radulescu, mastered by Caterina to a height of psychological complexity.

Radulescu ascribes particular importance to the element of improvisation in developing the roles. Because in the traditional acting troupes of the Commedia dell'arte, each actor was responsible for the creation of his / her role and the roles were further developed on the stage by means of improvisational skills.

It was almost impossible to record or pretend such improvised dialogues in writing, so many gaps in the texts were marked with notes such as "lazzis" and marked places where improvised interludes took place.

The character of Colombina emerged from a tradition of female performance and comedy, which is composed of the entertainment talent of courtesans, female jugglers and mimes, street artists, etc. According to Baumbach, it is only through the "artificial figure" - Colombina in the case of Caterina Biancolleli - that the transformation into different "social roles", "genders and gender roles", "gods", "ghosts", "animals", "other artificial figures (maschere)" or "objects" possible. It should be noted that the “fictional character” and the “actor” always maintain an “open duality” and are never clearly delimited from one another, nor are they completely connected to one another.

The trickster as a shape shifter

Often the trickster is depicted in animal form (rabbit, spider, coyote, wolf, crow, ...). He is a master of transformation: He can take on the appearance of all conceivable forms of life and appear in both old and young forms; in these properties it resembles that of Mercury in classical myth and even more so of alchemy .

Since the trickster can also be a hermaphrodite and he / she can change his / her gender, no sexual experience is alien to him / her. As a woman, the trickster, who is more masculine in his original form, even experiences menstruation ( ture ), pregnancy and childbirth. So the trickster can also be responsible for the birth of the heroes. Whether he gives or takes life is decided in the respective situation.

Creativity and innovation

As a cultural hero, the trickster is a founder of culture and a medium of cultural change. He sees things from a different perspective and therefore has the opportunity to reinterpret them creatively. This fits in with his quality as a professional taboo breaker who defies all rules of the community, but still remains part of this community. The price for breaking taboos is mostly isolation. Nevertheless, the trickster often enjoys a certain immunity and can evade the maximum penalty. In relation to one's sexuality, breaking taboos means incest , homosexuality and gender change ( transgender ), both of which are outlawed norms in many cultures.

An example of these sexually connotated properties can be found in the Winnebago cycle : Wakdjunkaga wants to kill a squirrel in a hollow tree trunk with his overly long, loose penis (which he usually carries in his backpack). He lowers the penis deeper and deeper into the hole, but fails to kill the squirrel, so he pulls his penis out again. But this was gnawed into pieces by the squirrel. That's why the penis is smaller today. From the pieces of the penis, the trickster used his creative power to create various types of vegetables that did not exist before (Radin / Kerényi / Jung 1954).

In Christianity

It is noticeable that especially in Christianity the classification of the trickster becomes a problem. Here he has been limited to his purely negative qualities over time and made the devil . According to Wolfgang Stein, in many fairy tales, especially those in Eastern Europe, the trickster's figure has probably been preserved in the figure of the “cheated devil”. On the one hand, his creative deeds are only negative from the people's point of view, are mostly not even mentioned or demand a high price. On the other hand, trickster elements can also be found in other archetypes , including magician , knight , king and herald .

Examples

literature

  • Barbara Babcock-Abrahams: A Tolerated Margin of Mess. The Trickster and his Tales Reconsidered . In: Journal of the Folklore Institute . 11, 3, 1974, ISSN  0015-5934 , pp. 147-186.
  • Franchot Ballinger: Living Sideways. Tricksters in American Indian Oral Traditions . University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK 2004, ISBN 0-8061-3632-4 .
  • Gerda Baumbach : actor. Historical anthropology of the actor. Volume 1. Acting styles. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag 2012.
  • Daniel G. Brinton : Library of Aboriginal American Literature . 8 volumes. Brinton, Philadelphia PA 1882-90.
  • Daniel G. Brinton: American Hero-Myths. A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent . Watts, Philadelphia PA 1882 (Reprinted by Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York NY 1970).
  • Theresa Faherty: Othello dell 'Arte: The Presence of Commedia in Shakespeare's Tragedy. In: Theater Journal 43/2, May 1991, pp. 179-194.
  • Walter Hirschberg: New dictionary of ethnology. Berlin 1988.
  • Stefanie Hundt: The Trickster in Contemporary Native American Literature . Microfiche output. Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2000, ISBN 3-8288-0850-6 ( Science Edition - Series American Studies 15).
  • Lewis Hyde : Trickster makes this world. Mischief, myth, and art . Farrar Straus Giroux, New York NY 1998, ISBN 0-374-27928-4 .
  • William J. Hynes, William G. Doty (Eds.): Mythical Trickster Figures. Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms . University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa AL et al. 1993, ISBN 0-8173-0599-8 .
  • Edith Jachimowicz: "Look here, it's me, the trickster!" The funny person on stage. Edited by Peter Csobádi. Müller Speiser, Salzburg 1994, pp. 513-519.
  • CG Jung: "On the psychology of the picaresque figure", The divine rascal, Ed. Radin, Zurich: Rhein-Verlag 1954.
  • Michelle R. Kloppenburg: Contemporary trickster tales. The pillagers in Louise Erdrich's North Dakota Quartet and their stories of survival . Verlag Die Blaue Eule, Essen 1999, ISBN 3-89206-905-0 , ( Work on American Studies 24), (At the same time: Paderborn, Univ., Diss., 1998).
  • Alexander Knorr: Metatrickster. Burton, Taxil, Gurdjieff, Backhouse, Crowley, Castaneda. An interpretation of the life, work and work of selected historical personalities, whose prosperity required the help of the discourse on mythological trickster figures . Vasa-Verlag, Pondicherry et al. 2004, ISBN 3-9809131-6-3 , ( Alteritas 3), (also: Munich, Univ., Diss., 2002).
  • Michael Kuper (Ed.): How the contradiction came into the world. About the spider and other trick stars in Africa. Zerling, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-88468-066-8 ( Documenta Ethnographica . 7).
  • Claude Lévi-Strauss: "The Structural Study of Myth", The Journal of American Folklore 68/270, October - December 1955, pp. 428–444.
  • Matthias Pache: The Fox in the Andes. An Alternative Interpretation of the Trickster. In: Anthropos 107.2 (2012), pp. 481–496.
  • Robert D. Pelton: The Trickster in West Africa. A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight . University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1980, ISBN 0-520-03477-5 ( Hermeneutics 8).
  • Paul Radin : The Trickster. A Study in American Indian Mythology . Comments by Karl Kerényi and CG Jung . Bell, New York NY 1956.
  • Paul Radin, Karl Kerényi, CG Jung: The divine rogue. A cycle of Indian myths . Schelmen cycle translated by Ilse Krämer . Rhein-Verlag, Zurich 1954.
  • Dominica Radulescu: Caterina's Colombina: The Birth of a Female Trickster in Seventeenth-Century France. In: Theater Journal 60.1 (March 2008), pp. 87-113.
  • Michael Andrew Y. Sakamoto: An Empty Room: Butoh Performance and the Social Body in Crisis. University of California, Los Angeles 2012.
  • Erhard Schüttpelz: The trickster. In: The figure of the third. A paradigm of cultural studies. Edited by Eva Eßlinger, Tobias Schlechtriemen, Doris Schweitzer, Alexander Zons. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2010, pp. 208-224.
  • Wolfgang Stein: The cultural hero trickster of the Winnebago and his position towards comparable figures in the oral traditions of North American Indians. A criticism of the culture hero trickster conception of Paul Radin. Holos-Verlag, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-86097-046-1 ( Völkerkundliche Arbeit 3), (At the same time: Munich, Univ., Diss., 1990).
  • Ingeborg Weber, Wolfgang Weber: On the trail of the divine rascal. Designs of the North American Indian tale and the European folk tale . Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart et al. 1984, ISBN 3-7728-0867-0 ( Problemata 98).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Langenscheidt's concise dictionary
  2. ↑ Nana Oforiatta-Ayim: Heroes, Legends and Symbols, Knesebeck-Verlag
  3. ↑ Rebecca Mak: Myths of the World, Knesebeck-Verlag
  4. ↑ Duden: The dictionary of origin, Lemma Trick.
  5. ^ Paul Radin, Karl Kerényi u. CG Jung: The divine rogue. A cycle of Indian myths . Rhein-Verlag, Zurich 1954, p. 7.
  6. ↑ CG Jung: "On the psychology of the trickster figure", GW 9/1: §465
  7. ↑ ibid .: §484
  8. ↑ ibid .: §456
  9. ↑ ibid .: §472
  10. ↑ CG Jung: Archetype, p. 168, 16th edition. DTV publishing house. 2010 ISBN 978-3-423-35175-1 - The same in GW 9/1, §456-488: "On the psychology of the trickster figure", quotation § 473.
  11. ^ Marie-Louise von Franz (1985): The shadow and the bad in fairy tales, Kösel-Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3-466-34107-8 , p. 28.
  12. ↑ Ibid .: p. 274
  13. ^ William J. Hynes, "Mapping the Characteristics of Mthic Tricksters: A Heuristic Guide", pp. 33-45 in: William J. Hynes / William G. Doty, "Mythical Trickster Figures: Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms", Tuscaloosa (University of Alabama Press) 1993, p. 33.
  14. ↑ Jung 2010, p. 170
  15. ↑ Erhard Schüttpelz, Der Trickster , p. 212 f.
  16. ↑ Sakamoto, An Empty Room , p. 183.
  17. ↑ Sakamoto, An Empty Room , p. 191.
  18. ↑ Jachimowitz, "Look here, it's me, the trickster!" , P. 517.
  19. ↑ Baumbach, actor. Historical anthropology of the actor. Volume 1. Acting styles.
  20. ↑ Theresa Faherty, Othello dell'Arte , S. 183rd
  21. ↑ Lévi-Strauss, The Structural Study Of Myth , p. 441.