DCRC - Digital Cultures Research Centre

Translating Tales of the Trickster, funded by the AHRC, is a network and development project exploring the Trickster, an enduring character from folklore who is never quite what we at first think and still appears in different guises across the world today. The Trickster network will consider how trickster folklore is being translated into new forms of fiction and will explore how trickster narratives are lived and performed in every day life, as evidenced in material gathered from autobiographies, personal testimonies and network interactions.

Creating an open space for discussion of all manifestations of the Trickster, we aim to collect and explore the differences and similarities between competing narratives and tricksters in mythology, traditional folktales, crime novels and online scams.

Eventually these ‘tall tales’ will be stored in a digital archive of established and emerging trickster tales.  We will thus investigate whether Trickster migrations can be tracked from original sources to the new myths of today: examples of this might be the ways in which West African trickster folklore are being adapted and translated into contemporary, multi-platform “romance scams” with a global reach.

As well as providing an online archive space, Translating Tales of the Trickster will create opportunities to join creative discussions – from participation in a workshop stimulated by an evening of Trickster Tales to a public performance that shares the creative ideas and project outcomes in novel ways.

Launching our online Trickster network on 1^st April with a call to makers, critics and performers, we aim to share stories of Tricksters from around the world, from ancient folklore to urban myth and in online adventures.