In this course we will examine trickster tales across cultures. Societies the world over have known tricksters (Coyote, Hare, Brer Rabbit, Monkey, Tortoise, Fox, the snake, Ananse, Kagga, Hermes, Odysseus, young Jacob), but we cannot assume that all tricksters are alike or carry the same meaning. Trickster tales are particularly associated with nomadic or village societies, but also with colonial frontiers beyond the reach of the law. Monotheisms, empires, and post-Homeric epics have a great suspicion of tricksters, a mistrust often carried over into the realist novel. The defeat of the trickster is prominent in detective fiction and comic books. For the same reason, however, the trickster can also appear as a subversive postcolonial rebel. Yet capitalism itself always retains a special place for the trickster and his exploitation of the empathetic imagination. In short, the trickster has always been a focal point for questions about the function of trust in human relations.