Choice 评论
The trickster figure is a cultural icon familiar to most cultures in one form or another. The various manifestations of form (monkey, coyote, rabbit, etc.), circumstance, and use of this defining character have recently provided several scholars with a rich and expansive field of cultural and cross-cultural investigation. Smith (Seton Hall Univ.) either cites or briefly summarizes some of the more relevant of these studies--e.g., those by Henry Louis Gates Jr., John W. Roberts, Gerald Vizenor, Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldua, Amy Ling--and thereby situates her own feminist analysis in the discourse. She takes on the formidable task of describing and comparing the trickster figure in Asian, Native, and African American culture; she makes this discussion manageable by limiting her analysis to the writing of three celebrated contemporary women: Maxine Hong Kingston, Louise Erdrich, and Toni Morrison. There is always risk in putting any writer forth as representative of any cultural expression, but certainly all these writers are inheritors and users of their traditions. An important contribution to and stimulus for the growing body of multicultural critical texts. Highly recommended for all academic collections. C. Packard; University of Massachusetts at Amherst