Trickster Makes This World

Lewis Hyde's Trickster Makes This World explores the playful and disruptive nature of the human imagination through the lens of trickster mythology. These boundary-crossing figures, often found at the edges of society, are known for their appetites, cunning, and subversion of norms. Hyde examines how tricksters like Coyote, Eshu, and Hermes, despite their troublesome ways, are also indispensable culture heroes who bring about creation and change. He then connects these ancient narratives to the lives and works of modern creators such as Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and Allen Ginsberg.