Troubling Tricksters, Revisioning Critical Conversations (Heftet (myke permer))

This is a collection of theoretical essays, creative pieces, and critical ruminations that provides a re-visioning of trickster criticism in light of recent backlash against it. The complaints of some Indigenous writers, the critique from Indigenous nationalist critics, and the changing of academic fashion have resulted in few new studies on the trickster. For example, "The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature (2005)", includes only a brief mention of the trickster, with skeptical commentary. And, in 2007, Anishinaabe scholar Niigonwedom Sinclair (a contributor to this volume) called for a moratorium on studies of the trickster irrelevant to the specific experiences and interests of Indigenous nations. One of the objectives of this anthology is, then, to encourage scholarship that is mindful of the critic's responsibility to communities, and to focus discussions on incarnations of tricksters in their particular national contexts.The contribution of the book is twofold: to offer a timely counterbalance to this growing critical lacuna, and to propose new approaches to trickster studies, approaches that have been clearly influenced by the nationalists' call for cultural and historical specificity.

Preface; What's the Trouble with the Trickster? An Introduction; The Trickster Moment, Cultural Appropriation, & the Liberal Imagination in Canada; The Anti-Trickster in the Work of Sheila Watson, Mordecai Richler, & Gail Anderson-Dargatz; Why Ravens Smile to Little Old Ladies as They Walk By; Gasps, Snickers, Narrative Tricks, & Deceptive Dominant Ideologies in the Classroom; A Conversation with Christopher Kientz; Personal Totems; Dances with Rigoureau; Naapi in My World; Sacred Stories in Comic [Book] Form: A Cree Reading of Darkness Calls; "Coyote Sees the Prime Minister" & "Coyote Goes to Toronto"; Excerpt from Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, & Spirit; (Re)Nationalizing Naanabozho: Anishinaabe Sacred Stories, Nationalist Literary Criticism, & Scholarly Responsibility; Quincentennial Trickster Poetics: Lenore Keeshig-Tobias's "Trickster Beyond 1992: Our Relationship" (1992) & Annharte Baker's "Coyote Columbus Cafe" (1994); Processual Encounters of the Transformative Kind: Spiderwoman Theatre, Trickster, & the First Act of "Survivance"; Diasporic Violences, Uneasy Friendships, & The Kappa Child; "How I Spent My Summer Vacation": History, Story, & the Cant of Authenticity.