Tricksters in World Culture: Mockery, Su

Tricksters constitute one of the universal themes or tropes in mythology and folklore of many cultures. Through the discussions of ancient Greek, North-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 buffoon, fool, jester, holy fool, kynik, picaro, adventurer, imposter, con artist, female and transgender 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 course will culminate in the trial of the most popular and important trickster in Soviet culture, Ostap Bender from Ilf and Petrov’s satirical novels. In the course’s finale will discuss the role of tricksters in contemporary politics.