The Trickster of Liberty (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Gerald R. Vizenor
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Satire, Vignette
- Subjects: Teaching or teachers, Language or languages, United States or Americans, Tricksters, College life, Native Americans or American Indians, Grandparents or grandchildren, Colleges or universities, China or Chinese people
Creating a framing device of prologue and epilogue, Vizenor presents vignettes, some stingingly satirical and many based on his experiences in the academic world. In the prologue, Vizenor's protagonist, Sergeant Alex Hobriser, a name that is clearly satirical, comments on Eastman Shicer, who is both a cultural anthropologist and an aerobics instructor. This juxtaposition of professions provides a clue of what will follow.
Vizenor warns that academic attempts to “harness the trickster in the best tribal narratives and to discover the code of comic behavior, hindered imagination...
[The entire page is 550 words long]
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