Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Fox, Timothy R.

Titel

Realizing Fantastic Trickster Liberations in Gerald Vizenor's "Griever: An American Monkey King in China"

Ist Teil von

• Journal of the fantastic in the arts, 2009-01, Vol.20 (1 (75)), p.70-90

Ort / Verlag

Pocatello: International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In his novel Griever: An American Monkey King in China, Gerald Vizenor re-envisions China's Monkey King as a political liberator having much in common with the trickster figure of Native American myth. Vizenor instills the liberationist qualities of Monkey into his fictional Native American trickster-teacher Griever de Hocus. However, Griever's liberatory acts all come to naught, as freed animals and individuals either return to their captors or are killed. What is behind these failed liberation attempts? It is argued in this paper that despite obvious similarities, the original Chinese Monkey King is in important ways dissimilar to the Native American trickster. Griever's political liberations are therefore ambiguous because of the mismatch arising from grafting the Chinese trickster onto the Native American trickster. When liberation is achieved, it comes about through Griever's travels in a dream realm where he experiences the tribal spirit of China.