CLASS 18 EWRT 1B

AGENDA Exam 3: Terms Quarter Countdown Team Change Discussion:

“Grandison” Osama "Defining the Trickster” "Transformation of the Trickster."

Presentation: Introduction to Essay #4 In-class writing: Evaluating Osama as a

Trickster Character.

EXAM 3: VOCAB AND TERMS

Answer all 25 questions; there are questions on the back.

Extra credit to anyone who can identify one or both of the authors of these two examples that I used to demonstrate figurative language. “All the world’s a stage” The apparition of these faces in the

crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

QUARTER COUNTDOWN

Class 19: Library Workshop Class 20: Terms Exam Make-up or Re-take• Friday week 11:

Self assessment due before noon. Revision of essay 2 or 3 due

Class 21: Discussion Class 22:

Final Exam Comprehensive Terms test Research Paper: Essay #4 due

ESSAY #4TEAMS

Get into groups of three or four. (1-2 minutes)

If you can’t find a group, please raise your hand.

Once your group is established, choose one person to be the keeper of the points. Write down members’ names Turn in your sheet at the end of the

class period.

In your groups, discuss Trickster characters and their traits. Then, identify traits of the trickster you saw in “Grandison” and Osama.

TRAITS OF THE TRICKSTER

POSSIBLE TRAITS OF THE TRICKSTER

• Deceitful: The trickster uses trickery to bring about change.

• Self-Serving: The trickster often feels that he or she has been wronged and is therefore justified in taking action to bring about change and/or to defeat “the enemy.”

• Shape Shifter: The trickster may change forms, sex, and so forth as an element of surprise to his victim. The change may also be psychological instead of (or in addition to) a visual change.

Cultural Hero: The trickster may be idealized as a cultural hero when, as the agent of transformation, he or she overturns a cruel or unfair leader or political/social system or reverses the fortunes of the more powerful party. According to Helen Lock, this characteristic separates the fool from the trickster. “The true trickster’s trickery calls into question fundamental assumptions about the way the world is organized, and reveals the possibility of transforming them (even if for ignoble [shameful] ends)” (Lock 6). Michael J. Carroll includes cultural hero as an attribute as well; he characterizes the trickster as “a transformer who makes the world habitable for humans by ridding it of monsters or who provides those things [such as fire] that make human society possible (“Levi-Strauss, Freud, and the Trickster” 305). Hardy characterizes the trickster as the source of unexpected changes in a world where change is not always comfortable and as a symbol of the uncertain world in which we live.

• Solitary creature: Many tricksters are solitary animals (or humans), working alone rather than with a partner or within a group – to undertake change. Michael P. Carroll notes that “Ravens are usually sighted singly or at most in pairs; coyotes forage independently…; hares have long been noted for their solitariness…Spiders generally associate with members of their own species on only two occasions: when they are born and when they mate” (“Trickster as Selfish Buffoon” 115).

• Physically, intellectually, or socially weak creature: The trickster is often portrayed as a much weaker character than his prey, and yet through cleverness and trickery, he is able to overcome all obstacles and prevail. In some cases the trickster may appear to be weaker physically in order to confuse his prey (false frailty).

• Special tools: The trickster may have special tools or abilities that enable him to perform his acts. Often these tools include magic and/or supernatural powers. An example would be the Chinese Monkey who keeps a needle behind his ear; when he removes the needle and recites a request, the needle may turn into any tool or implement that is required for a particular story.

• Teacher: The trickster is a purveyor of life lessons through the stories, from manners to ethics. The teacher often forces the reader to examine the status quo and often, “to break out of old stereotypes, whether they’ve been imposed by ourselves, our families, our culture, or circumstances (“The Trickster” 3).

“THE PASSING OF GRANDISON”

Who can offer a brief summary of Grandison?

Which traits of the trickster do you see in Grandison?

Who can offer a brief summary of Osama?

Which traits of the trickster do you see in Osama?

Osama

INTRODUCTION TO ESSAY #4: THE RESEARCH ESSAY.

INTRODUCTION TO ESSAY #4: THE RESEARCH ESSAY.

Trickster characters have existed in stories from most cultures since the earliest times. The long-lasting appeal of this archetype (a recurring symbol of a recurring model) emphasizes the cultural need to acknowledge that all is not what it seems to be, that we need to be on the lookout for those who would fool us. It is not hard to account for the appeal of tricksters—they are fun in their radical assault on the status quo, yet their trickery also strikes a deeper chord for most people.

As societies have evolved, the cultural function of the trickster has been reinvented: who or what are they in a modern society? When and why do they appear? Helen Lock, in her essay “Transformations of the Trickster,” writes, Contentious issues include the status of the archaic archetypal tricksters (were they mortal or divine? can a god be a trickster?), the relation of tricksters to gender and to ethnicity, and the vexed question of whether modern tricksters exist at all. In one sense it does seem entirely appropriate that these embodiments of ambiguity (no dispute there, at least) should remain so elusive. However, it is still important to address these tricky questions, because the trickster performs such fundamental cultural work: in understanding the trickster better, we better understand ourselves, and the perhaps subconscious aspects of ourselves that respond to the trickster’s unsettling and transformative behavior.

TOPIC: For this essay, consider trickster tales and trickster or trickster-like characters from our reading. Do they meet the criteria to be categorized as “tricksters”? Which measuring stick do we use to determine if they are or not? Who or what are they in a modern society? When and why do they appear? Is there a relationship between tricksters and gender and ethnicity? Do these modern tricksters, as Lock asserts, help us “better understand ourselves, and the perhaps subconscious aspects of ourselves that respond to the trickster’s unsettling and transformative behavior”? How? Or, do these trickster tales and trickster or trickster-like characters serve another purpose? Which?

DEFINING THE TRICKSTER

IN CLASS WRITING: PASSING CHARACTERS AS TRICKSTER CHARACTER:

1. Choose a new passing character: How can we envision him or her as a Trickster character?

2. Which of the definitions does he or she fit?3. What are his or her goals as a trickster?4. How many ways is he or she fooling people?5. What is his or her motivation?6. What are the outcomes?7. Does the passing character help us “better

understand ourselves, and the perhaps subconscious aspects of ourselves that respond to the trickster’s unsettling and transformative behavior”? How? Or does she/he serve another purpose? Which?

• Which, from our reading, are trickster or trickster-like characters? Which are trickster tales? What characteristics make them tricksters? How do we know?

• We have a sense of the what a trickster tale/character is from the reading we have done in the last couple of days, but to get a better idea of both that and ways to approach a paper on the topic, we will work with the librarian to start our research. We will be looking for information about conventional definitions that we can connect to (or disconnect from) the passing characters we have been reading about. Then, you can do some research to find an interesting angle to use: outlaw tricksters, gender tricksters, female tricksters.

Post #21: Discuss one or more characters in terms of one of the traits we discussed in class today. For example, consider Jack as deceitful or Clare or Irene as self-serving; Jess Goldberg or Osama as a “shape shifter” or “cultural hero”; maybe even the Iowans as “teachers.” Any of these characters might be discussed as “agents of change.”

Bring: your computer or device, if you have one. The librarian will give you an overview of services and an opportunity to do research for your paper. Consider who and what you might consider as a focus. Remember, you must read before you will know what you are looking for; otherwise, it wouldn’t be a research paper.