RPH 351 Haruka Koda (A1167731) 7/01/14 Transcending Myths: Trickster “The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the United States”, by Samuel A. Floyd, observes a new way of listening to the music of black America, and appreciating its profound contribution to American music. Examining folklore, myths, music, and rituals, Floyd offers cultural heritage in modernism. He recognizes European influences, while demonstrating how much black music has continued to share with its African counterparts. One of these elements that African music has attributed is the element of “Tricksters.” Although Tricksters is a motif existent in times before Chris, Tricksters have been transmitted to be taught and learned in cultures in the West and Japan today. The archetypal “Trickster” is allegorical or a metaphorical teaching in stories of a polytheistic culture and religion. According to Floyd, in African stories, “Trickster tales are not just for humor, but to instill discipline and ingrain fear, a sense of accomplishment, pride, and humility”1 Floyd continues on to explain that stories, such as one’s with Tricksters, are transmitted into words and edited into methods for people to understand it better. Music is the example that he gives, noting that both people within and out of the culture will have a better understanding of the teaching in that form. Africa, filled with adverse historical years, has managed to express itself through music. Thus today hip­hop music and other modern music has been inspired today. Tricksters are an essential role in each culture growing up in the West. Even fter Christianity conquer the Western culture, Trickster still continued to be taught. Carl Jung defines Tricksters as a “rebel who refuses to conform to societal expectations. The Trickster's resistance to conformity is based on challenging authority, not on simplistic adornments. In fact, the Trickster may very well appear to be inconsequential on the outside. 2 A example of a literary representation of the Trickster is the Fool in William Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear. Although referred to as Lear's Fool, this

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Floyd, Samuel A. "Chapter 1 & 2." The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. N. pag. Print. 2 http://www.the16types.info/vbulletin/content.php/211­On­the­Psychology­of­the­Trickster­Figure­Jung

character actually is graced with great wisdom. The Fool stands in direct contrast to the trappings of authority with which Lear the King suffers yet ultimately he is viewed as the wisest character in the play. Shakespeare recognised as a classic today, is read and favored in Western education. Thus Tricksters continues to be a motif in education within the Western culture. A example of Trickster in Japan that remains to be recognized in Japan today is Genji Monogatari. Written in a period of hierarchical caste system, the novel itself was a trickster. The novel challenged duty of a aristocrat. It also challenged the idea of women being objectified. Thus characters of the Tricksters in the novel are mostly women portrayed as animals such as a fox. The women appear to be blissed in ignorance contradicts its way to hurt the main character derived from overwhelming emotions. The motif of women empowering men shook Japanese cultural norm that men are superior to women. In conclusion, Floyd demonstrates myths and stories from tribes transmitted and continued to be taught in culture today. As African cultures has altered its form of such into music, other cultures have made it’s way into forms such as literature. However, there are many other forms. In the West, cartoons such as Looney Tunes exist with Trickster characters. In a country, such as Japan, where silence is utopia, Genji Monogatari is just one example which has transcended Tricksters. When society creates Taboo, cultures, such as Japan, will find a form to express it’s voice through other ways such as manga. Tricksters continue to create, challenge, and seek a new perspective in cultures existing in the past, the present, and in the future.