The trickster spirit In Margaret Atwood's work

The aim of the thesis is to elaborate on the trickster spirit in Margaret Atwood's work. The first theoretical part reflects on scholarly debates and identifies some of the most typical trickster features and function. William J. Hynes's essay, 'Mapping the Characteristics of Mythic Tricksters' (1997), proposing common trickster features, operates as a fundamental framework for further analysis. To avoid decontextualization of the trickster, a closer look at the author and her multiple attributes, operating as the context from which the trickster emerges, is provided. Hence, this part elaborates on the multiple aspects of Atwood: as self-depicted, a writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a public persona, all looked at through the trickster framework. The third part reflects on Atwood's novelist narrators and suggests that her novels feature storytellers that manifest trickster features. This part proposes that Atwood creates a cycle of trickster-narrators who employ trickery as a survival strategy. A brief overview of the interpretation of Atwood's novels and their textual structures is further provided as particular novels are chosen to illuminate particular trickster characteristics. The fourth chapter thus suggests that not only Atwood's narrators but also her texts manifest significant trickster features and might be referred to as 'trickster texts'. The final part examines one of Atwood's novels, The Robber Bride, in more details. A summary and a short introduction of Zenia as the trickster are provided; however, the main focus falls on the close reading and the interpretation of the text as the trickster.