The essay looks at the role of the trickster in oral literature and argues that the trickster is neither male nor female. The essay argues that the trickster is androgynous and it is this concept that makes the trickster able to outwit the larger and more powerful creatures in the tales. As such, the essay makes a point that the trickster's success at outwitting animals in folklore has nothing to do with it being male!
Table of Contents
1. Preamble
2. Introductory matters
3. Androgyny and Masculinity: “Hare and Lion” and “The Tug of War.”
4. Conclusion
Objectives & Research Themes
This paper explores how trickster tales in the Ikalanga oral tradition function as instruments for reinforcing patriarchal structures, while simultaneously demonstrating that the trickster's inherent androgyny serves as a hidden subversion of those very gender binaries.
- The concept of androgyny as a key to the trickster's success.
- Deconstruction of binary masculinity and femininity in oral literature.
- The role of humour and narrative technique in masking patriarchal ideology.
- The influence of socialisation and translation on gender-neutral trickster figures.
- The manipulation of size, space, and language as tools of patriarchal power.
Excerpt from the Book
Androgyny and Masculinity: “Hare and Lion” and “The Tug of War.”
The storyteller of “Hare and Lion,” Tukulu Akanyang is a domestic worker in Francistown who tells stories to her children.
In the story “Hare and Lion,” Lion terrorises the animals as they come to the well to drink. He kills and eats them and many lives are lost until Hare goes to the well and succeeds in making Lion believe that Lion’s reflection in the well is actually a rival who has come to challenge Lion’s position. At Hare’s suggestion, Lion jumps into the well in order to deal with the rival and he drowns. The animals see Hare as a saviour and decide to host a feast to celebrate Lion’s death. The full text of the tale can be found in Appendix 2.1
In this tale, the trickster is able to outwit the larger and more dangerous Lion because the trickster is androgynous. In “Hare and Lion” the storyteller does not give the listener obvious pointers as to the trickster’s sex and one has to look at the narrative techniques of the storyteller to locate Hare’s sex. The trickster, for instance, is not described in as masculine a sense as Lion, nor does the trickster display fear, an emotion that patriarchy generally associates with femininity, as we see in the other characters. We thus have a situation where the trickster operates in an environment that is parallel to masculinity and femininity in that it lives among the animals yet displays none of their socialised characteristics. The trickster then is able to move unhindered in either the male or female paradigms.
Summary of Chapters
Preamble: The author introduces the critique of trickster tales, proposing androgyny as a lens to understand how these stories simultaneously uphold and undermine patriarchal norms.
Introductory matters: This section frames trickster tales as "sugar-coated pills" that use humour to normalize patriarchal ideology, while arguing that the trickster’s androgynous nature allows it to operate outside restricted gender paradigms.
Androgyny and Masculinity: “Hare and Lion” and “The Tug of War.”: Through an analysis of two specific tales, the author demonstrates how the trickster exploits the rigid gender expectations of larger animals to achieve success, thereby challenging the necessity of binary gender roles.
Conclusion: The author summarizes that while trickster tales often act as ideological tools for patriarchy, the trickster itself represents an androgynous alternative that exposes the fragility of gender-based power structures.
Keywords
Androgyny, Trickster, Patriarchy, Oral tradition, Gender relations, Ikalanga, Masculinity, Femininity, Narrative technique, Socialisation, Ideology, Hare, Empowerment, Power dynamics, Cultural analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary subject of this research?
The paper examines how Ikalanga trickster tales reflect and reinforce patriarchal structures, and how the trickster figure uses androgyny to challenge these systems.
What are the central thematic fields discussed?
The study focuses on the intersection of oral literature, gender criticism, social conditioning, and the ideological manipulation of folklore.
What is the fundamental research question?
The research investigates whether the trickster, as a product of a patriarchal society, inherently upholds that ideology or if its androgynous nature serves to undermine it.
Which scientific methods are applied?
The author employs a pluralistic approach rooted in feminist criticism, utilizing deconstructive analysis to interrogate the encoding of gender roles in traditional storytelling.
What is the focus of the main section?
The main section analyzes specific tales like "Hare and Lion" and "The Tug of War" to illustrate how the trickster navigates the gray areas between binary gender oppositions.
Which keywords best describe this study?
Key terms include androgyny, patriarchy, Ikalanga, oral tradition, gender roles, narrative subversion, and trickster psychology.
How does the "hare factor" function within the narrative?
The "hare factor" refers to the trickster's capacity to behave in both masculine and feminine ways, or outside these parameters, which allows it to exploit the rigid gender biases of other characters.
What role does size play in the context of patriarchal power in these tales?
Size is identified as a symbol of masculine power; the trickster subverts this by proving that smaller, seemingly weaker animals can outwit larger, "masculine" figures through superior intellect.
How does translation affect the interpretation of the trickster?
The author notes that translating gender-neutral Ikalanga pronouns into gendered English pronouns (like 'he' or 'she') imposes a binary gendering on the trickster that is absent in the original oral context.
- Quote paper
- Wazha Lopang (Author), 2013, Laughing with Caution. Ikalanga Trickster Tales and the Gender Question, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/266741
