World Mythology: Tricksters

Tricksters exist in the myths and folktales of cultures around the world. Tricksters are mysterious, fascinating, funny and - just sometimes - evil. It is incredible that trickster tales developed across all continents of the world, and in this class, we will get to meet many of them.

We will get to go deep into what it means to be a trickster. We will see why they are important, and what role they play in culture. We will compare tricksters cross-culturally, looking at how each story relates to the mythology it belongs to. And finally, we will tie it all together by considering a provocative question: what should we learn from the stories of tricksters? 

The stories come from a broad global tradition.

Lesson 1 - Puck, Lange Wapper and Changeling Children (Western European)
Lesson 2 - Eris, Hermes, Dionysus: Greek Trickery  (Ancient Greek)
Lesson 3 - Mulla Nasruddin: The Wise Fool (Across the Islamic World)
Lesson 4 - Anansi (West Africa)
Lesson 5 - Tanuki, Kitsuni and Jiraiya (Japanese)
Lesson 6 - Fox Pranx: Reynard and Kuma Lisa (Pan-European)
Lesson 7 - The Modern Tricksters
Lesson 8 - Learning from Tricksters

Each lesson begins by sharing the location of the story on a map, and shares some of the source material for the myths and folktales. We will then explore the tricksters themselves, and then we will hear the tales about them.

As with all of my mythology classes - Greek of the Week, Norse Course, Iliad and Odyssey - the sessions use Google Slides, but in a dynamic manner, rather than a one-way lecture. The sessions are built around talk, sharing, storytelling and questioning - from the students as well as from me.

The lessons are participative, and all students will have the opportunity to join in, read in role, narrate text on screen, and play 'in character'. These activities are designed to be completely risk-free and entirely optional - should children not wish to read and contribute in this way, they will still have a rich and deep experience in-class.

We are exploring humorous content, and my teaching style is - as always - casual, intellectual, relaxed and playful. I encourage students to see the classroom as a kind of academic playtime, and I am intentional about supporting them to know each other and build friendships within the class. Kids who want to study world mythology tend to have lots of other things in common too.

Whilst there is no compulsory work between sessions, children are invited to read and retell trickster tales as we progress through the course, and all are invited to use the Outschool classroom as a creative workspace for their own exchanges.