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Characteristics of trickster stories
Examples of trickster archetype
Five characteristics of tricksters in literature
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The Trickster in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire
Vampires today, particularly after Anne Rice's five-book series, the Vampire Chronicles, are portrayed in quite a different light than the vampires of ages past. Gone is the garlic and cross that offers protection, gone is the vampire's fear of all light and gone is their distant, in-human nature. (Whyte 2) In fact, most vampires are portrayed as both beast and man, struggling to retain their humanity as the lust for blood seems to never diminish and eternal as they are, their inner conflict spans to infinity. This duplicity is highly reminiscent of the paradoxical nature of the trickster archetype. Tricksters embrace creation just as easily as they revel in destruction, both beautiful and ugly, sometimes heroes and sometimes villains--still, tricksters are never merely good or evil. Although the various incarnations of the trickster archetype in world mythology differ more than they are alike, some elements exist that are common to all. The modern literary vampire may be understood as the embodiment of the trickster archetype. I will base this examination primarily on Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire.
Because tricksters are a cross-culture phenomenon, found in nearly every culture, and in a variety of disguises, trickster research has discovered it is very difficult to pinpoint what exactly makes a trickster what he is. Although it is often readily apparent that a trickster is, in fact, a trickster, supporting this claim is often rather difficult. Thus, few common elements have surfaced, but I feel they are enough to provide sufficient light to the image of the vampire as a trickster in one of his many disguises. To begin with,...
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...mselves from themselves.
Addendum
Although I use the words "he," "his," and so on to denote tricksters, I must very clearly state that tricksters are not necessarily male. The use of these words is in no way an attempt to promote a sexist outlook of the trickster phenomenon. In fact, many tricksters are androgynous.
Bibliography
Christen, Kimberly A.. Tricksters & Clowns. ABC-CLIO, 1998.
Kaufmann, Walter. The Portable Nietzsche. New York: Penguin, 1984.
Radini, Paul. The Trickster, A Study in American Indian Mythology. New York: Schocken Books, 1972.
Rice, Anne. Interview with the Vampire.
Whyte, Lesa. "Vampire." Encyclopedia Mythica. 14/07/02. http://www.pantheon.org/articles/v/vampire.html
Musinsky, Gerald. "Trickster." Encyclopedia Mythica. 14/07/02. http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/trickster.html
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Cleofilas, had an illusion that all romances are like the ones she has seen on television. However, she soon realizes that her relationship with Juan Pedro was nothing like what she had dreamed it would be. Cisneros wants to emphasize the idea that when men bring home the primary source of income in the family, they feel they have power over their wives. Cisneros uses Juan Pedro in the story to portray this idea. For instance, Cleofilas often tells herself that if she had any brains in her, she would realize that Juan Pedro wakes up before the rooster to earn his living to pay for the food in her belly and a roof over her head (Cisneros, 1991, p.249). Cisneros wants to make a point that when men feel that they have power over their wives, women begin to feel a sense of low self-worth.
Kernell, Samuel, Jacobson, Gary C., Kousser, Thad, & Vavreck, Lynn. 2014. The Logic of American Politics 6th ed. Los Angeles: CQ Press
In this short story Sandra uncover the tension between Mexican heritage and demands of the American culture. Cleofilas life consisted of never ending chorus, no good brothers, and a complaining father. She is so excited when the day come for her to become married so she can move away from her town where she grew up, were there isn’t much to do except accompany the aunts and godmothers to the house of one or the other to play cards. She was excited to be far away, all she could think about was to have a lovely house and to wear outfits like the women on the tele. Her picture of the ideal Mexican wife soon became a nightmare when she finally arrived to Texas, where she
Goren, Paul. "The Two-Party System." Lecture, POL 4737W, Blegen Hall 425, Minneapolis, January 28, 2010.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist, Cleofilas, had an illusion that all romance is like the ones she had seen on television. However, she soon realizes that her relationship with Juan Pedro was nothing like what she had dreamed of. Cisneros wanted to emphasize the idea that when men bring home the primary source of income in the family, they feel they have power over their wives. Therefore, Cisneros used Juan Pedro in the story to portray this idea. For instance, Cleofilas often tells herself that if she had any brains in her, she would realize that Juan Pedro wakes up before the rooster to earn his living to pay for the food in her belly and a roof over her head (Cisneros, 1991, p.249). Cisneros wanted to make a point that when men feel that they have power over their wives, the woman begins to feel a sense of low self-worth.
Stevenson, John Allen. A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula. 2nd ed. Vol. 103. N.p.: Modern Language Association, 1988. JSTOR. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. .
Vampires have been viewed with fear and fascination for centuries. Of all the vampires in literature, Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula is probably the most prominent vampire. Recently, there has been an upsurge of public interest in socially acceptable vampires, like the Cullens in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. This essay will contrast Stoker’s Dracula with Carlisle Cullen, one of the newer vampires from the Twilight series. They will be examined in terms of their origins and how they dealt with immortality.
Higgs, Robert. "POLITICS & PROSPERITY." POLITICS PROSPERITY. N.p., 01 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 May 2014.
The idea of a lasting, ideally global, peace has been present in the minds of people for centuries. The most notable formulation of this is Kant’s vision of perpetual peace. “He saw it as a condition that needed to be maintained by politics between states with governments which represented society and separation of power. From this basic framework stems the idea called “democratic peace theory” (pg. 82). Democratic Peace Theory (DPT) asserts that democracies do not generally fight other democracies because they share common norms and domestic institutions that constrain international, state actors from going to war. Sebastian Rosato states, “In practical terms democratic peace theory provides the intellectual justification for the belief that spreading democracy abroad will perform the dual task of enhancing American national security promoting world peace” (pg. 585).
Beresford, Matthew. From Demons to Dracula: the Creation of the Modern Vampire Myth. London: Reaktion, 2008. Print.
For centuries, gothic authors depict the vampires as evil, repulsive, and socially secluded “creatures”, leaving the audience terrified by the gruesome details of the murdering and sucking the blood to kill the victims, in order for the vampire kind to survive. However, the modern vampire is drastically pulling away from that negative connotation, and becoming difficult to differentiate amongst the public. Since many Americans are struggling to make ends meet, they tend to seek out alternative methods of achieving money, such as donating blood for a payment. This not only helps struggling families in their time of need, but also helps people struggling with organ failure. This source of saving human blood is represented in Twilight, as the Cullen family of vampires, feed exclusively on animal blood in order to save human life. Though the gruesome murdering of the human victims from a vampire attack has been taken out of today’s stories, the general gloomy and eerie mystique of...
In Twilight, Edward Cullen presents the question; “ But what if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” The role of vampires is very controversial. Back in the day they were evil, soulless monsters and people genuinely feared them. However, in the present day it seems that we have grown to love them and even hope to one day be them. There are a plethora of vampire stories and many of them have become immense hits. With so many vampire stories, it is not uncommon that readers are able to identify a vast amount of similarities. Although similar in aspects, there are still many differences between the classic and modern day vampires. Two highly popular stories, in which we can easily identify similarities and differences, are Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.
Vampires have been a popular figure in literary works for almost 200 years; from John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (2005), the figure of the vampire has changed and developed over time but still remains popular and recognisable throughout literary history. The figure of the vampire is often used to represent ‘the other’, or as a manifestation of social anxieties at the time of writing. This is why it is interesting to study the how the tropes found within vampire fiction differ between texts, and the reasons behind these differences or transformations in the figure of the vampire. I will look at a range of texts to study how sexuality
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