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The Trickster Genre In Native American Literature

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As we know, Native American literature includes myths that were orally transmitted for centuries and covered different topics, like the one we read, which belongs to the Trickster folklore. The Trickster tales were often morality tales that taught lessons about proper behavior to children, although they could be told for simple amusement as well as on sacred occasions. Moreover, the typical tale narrates a kind of picaresque adventure in which the Trickster encounters a situation to which he responds with silliness and meets a playful end. For instance, the Trickster-tale genre of folklore appears in some form in every native American culture, so many examples are available: the Chaco people of Colombia and Panama tell tales of Fox, in the Amazon the trickster’s dual nature is embodied by the Twins, numerous Oceanian tales recount the accomplishments of the trickster Maui and the Australian Aboriginal trickster is Bamapana, known for his vulgar language, lustful behavior, and delight in discord. …show more content…

The Trickster hero serves as a subject onto which are projected the fears, failures, and unattained ideals of the source culture; that creates order out of chaos and teaches humans the skills of survival through negative examples that usually end with a complete failure, so these stories generally combine lessons with humor. Now, I would like to focus on the trickster Coyote, whose myths were told by the tribes of California, Plateau and Southwest areas. I have found a lot of interesting myths that related to Coyote that I would like to comment, but I will concentrate in the story I liked the

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