The Female Trickster: The Mask That Reveals, Post-Jungian and Postmodern Psychological Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Culture

I had trouble with Ms. Tannen's central premise. Trickster isn't just about redefining roles; Trickster is about radical paradigm shifts. Trickster is more a case of chaos theory personified, so the examples Ms. Tannen named of female detectives who redefined womens' roles in a male-dominated world seemed far too tame for such a fundamentally transformative mythology. The other aspect of Trickster on which Ms. Tannen seems to have missed the boat was that Trickster is often used to reinforce societal roles. Trickster shows by bad example how not to behave.So, this is an interesting book, but I don't think it makes the case for a female trickster. It smacks more of shoehorning a mythology in order to fit a preconceived notion.

Tannen has written a compelling study of female tricksters and how they emerge in contemporary culture as agents, not only of social disruption but also as agents of social change. She casts her net widely, taking us from Jane Austen to Madonna, and has a deep understanding of multiple approaches to cultural and literary analysis. Each chapter has fresh new insights, and the book will be valuable for folklorists seeking to understand the elusive female trickster and how she has managed to fly under the radar of critics.