The trickster : a study in American Indian mythology

Book

The trickster : a study in American Indian mythology / by Paul Radin ; with commentaries by Karl Kerényi and C.G. Jung ; introductory essay by Stanley Diamond.

Radin, Paul, 1883-1959 (author.). Kerényi, Karl, 1897-1973 (contributor.). Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961 (contributor.). Diamond, Stanley, 1922- (writer of introduction.). Hull, R. F. C. (Richard Francis Carrington), 1913-1974 (translator.).

Summary:

Few myths have so wide a distribution as the one, known by the name of the Trickster, which we are presenting here. For few can we so confidently assert that they belong to the oldest expressions of mankind. Few other myths have persisted with their fundamental content unchanged. The Trickster myth is found in clearly recognizable form among the simplest aboriginal tribes and among the complex. We encounter it among the ancient Greeks, the Chinese, the Japanese and in the Semitic world. Many of the Trickster's traits were perpetuated in the figure of the mediaeval jester, and have survived right up to the present day in the Punch-and-Judy plays and in the clown. Although repeatedly combined with other myths and frequently drastically reorganized and reinterpreted, its basic plot seems always to have succeeded in reasserting itself. ... The following paper is the presentation of one such Trickster myth, that found among the Siouan-speaking Winnebago of central Wisconsin and eastern Nebraska. -- Prefatory note (p. xxiii).

Record details

ISBN: 0805203516
ISBN: 9780805203516
Physical Description: xxv, 211 pages 21 cm
Publisher: New York : Schocken Books, 1972
Copyright: ©1956

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references.
Formatted Contents Note:: The trickster myth of the Winnebago Indians -- Supplementary trickster myths -- The nature and meaning of the myth / Paul Radin -- The trickster myth in relation to Greek mythology / Karl Kerényi, translated by R.F.C. Hull -- On the psychology of the trickster figure / C.G. Jung, translated by R.F.C. Hull.