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Trickster Makes This World

How Disruptive Imagination Creates Culture.
Series: Canons
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( 2,065 ratings, 259 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Trickster Makes This World explores the figure of the trickster, a playful, mischievous, and amoral force who disrupts and reshapes culture. Lewis Hyde draws on the myths of Coyote, Eshu, and Hermes, comparing these archetypes with modern creative icons like Picasso, Duchamp, and Ginsberg. This scholarly yet engaging book invites readers to rethink culture and creativity through the lens of the trickster.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in culture, mythology, creativity, and the role of disruption in artistic and social transformation. Suits those who appreciate literary scholarship presented in an accessible and thought-provoking style.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

This book from the author of The Gift is about imagination and philosophy and was described by Margaret Atwood as a 'masterpiece'.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Trickster disrupted the world around him, and in doing so he reshaped it. Playful, mischievous, subversive, amoral, tricksters are a great bother to have around, but they are also indispensable heroes of culture.

Trickster Makes This World revisits the stories of Coyote, Eshu, and Hermes and holds them up against the life and work of more recent creators: Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Allen Ginsberg, Maxine Hong Kingston, and others. Authoritative in its scholarship, supple and dynamic in its style, Trickster Makes This World encourages you to think and see afresh.

Series: Canons

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised as a modern classic, this book is celebrated for its insightful exploration of disruptive imagination (The Guardian). It is described as joyful and richly rewarding by Margaret Atwood (Los Angeles Times) and lauded for its brilliance and wisdom by David Foster Wallace. Critics highlight its transformative impact on the reader's thinking (Scotland on Sunday) and call it a masterpiece that folds language, culture, and humanity into one compelling narrative (The New Yorker).

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781786890504

Publisher: Canongate Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 06 April 2017

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Canongate Canons

Edition: Main - Canons edition

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 24.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 315g

Pages: 432

About the Author

Lewis Hyde was born in Boston and studied at the Universities of Minnesota and Iowa. In addition to Trickster Makes This World, he is the author of The Gift, a defence of the importance of creativity in our increasingly money-orientated society. A MacArthur Fellow and former Director of Creative Writing at Harvard, Hyde is currently the Professor of Creative Writing at Kenyon College in Ohio.

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