Social Science Indigenous Studies
Laughing with the Trickster
On Sex, Death, and Accordions
- Publisher
- House of Anansi Press Inc
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2022
- Category
- Indigenous Studies, Native Americans, Folklore & Mythology
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781487011246
- Publish Date
- Sep 2022
- List Price
- $18.99
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781487011239
- Publish Date
- Sep 2022
- List Price
- $22.99
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Description
Brilliant, jubilant insights into the glory and anguish of life from one of the world’s most treasured Indigenous creators.
Trickster is zany, ridiculous. The ultimate, over-the-top, madcap fool. Here to remind us that the reason for existence is to have a blast and to laugh ourselves silly.
Celebrated author and playwright Tomson Highway brings his signature irreverence to an exploration of five themes central to the human condition: language, creation, sex and gender, humour, and death. A comparative analysis of Christian, classical, and Cree mythologies reveals their contributions to Western thought, life, and culture—and how North American Indigenous mythologies provide unique, timeless solutions to our modern problems. Highway also offers generous personal anecdotes, including accounts of his beloved accordion-playing, caribou-hunting father, and plentiful Trickster stories as curatives for the all-out unhappiness caused by today’s patriarchal, colonial systems.
Laugh with the legendary Tomson Highway as he illuminates a healing, hilarious way forward.
About the author
Tomson Highway
Tomson Highway was born near Maria Lake, Manitoba in 1951. Living a nomadic lifestyle with no access to books, television or radio, Highway’s parents would tell their children stories, kindling Highway’s life-long interest in the oral tradition of storytelling.
Tomson Highway is widely recognized for his tremendous contribution to the development of Aboriginal theatre in both Canada and around the world.
In 1994, he was inducted into the Order of Canada, the first Aboriginal writer to be so honoured.
Editorial Reviews
This book is funny, innovative, and will capture your attention from the very beginning.
Cloud Lake Literary
One of the central pleasures of reading Highway’s text [is] his insistence on humour, often of a baldly ribald variety. Contrasted with European traditions full of deities who never crack a smile, the Trickster in Highway’s tradition is ‘zany.’ … By examining Indigenous stories, ways of living, dying, and – yes – laughing, … Highway [offers] powerful alternatives to hierarchical structures of society that insist on consuming the Earth’s natural resources at an unsustainable pace … If we can come to understand that our societal constructs are simply stories, and that we have the power to change those stories, there may be hope for our species and our planet. And if we can manage to find a way to laugh while we do it, so much the better.
That Shakespearean Rag
Highway’s determinedly positive view of his early life … carries over to this series of lectures. … He is a storyteller who has gathered many stories and lived many lives himself.
Winnipeg Free Press
The humour here might be outrageous, but it is also kind. … It is a book of wisdom and healing and, ultimately, a book of joy.
Miramichi Reader
Highway’s approach is dynamic, and based in humour … Despite its lofty subject matter, most of the book feels utterly personal, and very intimate; the chapters may be performance pieces, later released on the radio, but the connection is as close as that of a small group around a fire.
Quill and Quire
The trickster infuses Highway’s narrative; his stories … are fueled by a gentle and affecting humor.
World Literature Today
Other titles by Tomson Highway
My Name Is Seepeetza
30th Anniversary Edition
Permanent Astonishment
Growing Up Cree in the Land of Snow and Sky
Permanent Astonishment (Signed Edition)
A Memoir
Kiss of the Fur Queen
Penguin Modern Classics Edition
Masculindians
Conversations about Indigenous Manhood
Dragonfly Kites
From Oral to Written
A Celebration of Indigenous Literature in Canada, 1980–2010
The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito
Caribou Song
A Tale of Monstrous Extravagance
Imagining Multilingualism