Anancy’s Score (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Andrew Salkey
- First Published: 1973
- Type of Work: Short fiction
- Type of Plot: Fable
- Time of Work: Creation to the Vietnam War era
- Setting: West Africa and the Caribbean
- Genres: Fable, Short fiction
- Subjects: Africa or Africans, Philosophy or philosophers, Caribbean, Cattle, Changelings or cuckoos, Creation myth, Dogs, Folkloric or magical people, Magic or magicians, Mythical animals, Mythology or myths, Power, personal or social, Snakes, Spiders, Tigers, Tricks, Tricksters
- Locales: Africa, Caribbean
Characters Discussed
Anancy, a “spider individual person” who respects no one, human or beast. Much like his African-Caribbean counterpart, Anancy is a trickster figure, one who transcends natural and cultural boundaries. As a trickster, Anancy symbolizes primal creativity and a pathological bent toward destruction. He is both childlike and ruthlessly self-absorbed. Anancy is a marked creature in both worlds, viewed often as a pest but in the later stories almost as a savior for the Caribbean peoples. He can be a womanizer and a con artist while exhibiting an almost innate...
[The entire page is 879 words long]
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