The Trickster of Liberty by Gerald R. Vizenor
"The Trickster of Liberty" by Gerald R. Vizenor is a literary exploration that intertwines satirical vignettes and personal memoirs to examine cultural identity, humor, and the complexities of academic life. Central to the narrative is Sergeant Alex Hobriser, whose satirical commentary on characters like Eastman Shicer—a cultural anthropologist and aerobics instructor—sets the tone for a playful critique of conventional academic perspectives. The work features Luster Browne, a trickster figure who shares stories more for amusement than instruction, embodying the essence of a trickster that challenges linear thinking and stereotypes commonly held by Western audiences.
Vizenor incorporates Chippewa linguistic patterns, creating a unique narrative style that may be bewildering for some readers but offers an authentic representation of indigenous storytelling. The setting shifts from China to the fictional Patronia on the White Earth Reservation, reflecting an imaginative landscape that blurs the lines between reality and fiction. Through the lens of the trickster, Vizenor invites readers to embrace a non-linear understanding of life, celebrating the magical and mythical elements of existence. Overall, "The Trickster of Liberty" serves as a liberating journey into a world where traditional narrative forms are subverted, encouraging a fresh perspective on cultural narratives and identity.
The Trickster of Liberty by Gerald R. Vizenor
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1988
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Creating a framing device of prologue and epilogue, Vizenor presents vignettes, some stingingly satirical and many based on his experiences in the academic world. In the prologue, Vizenor’s protagonist, Sergeant Alex Hobriser, a name that is clearly satirical, comments on Eastman Shicer, who is both a cultural anthropologist and an aerobics instructor. This juxtaposition of professions provides a clue of what will follow.
Vizenor warns that academic attempts to “harness the trickster in the best tribal narratives and to discover the code of comic behavior, hindered imagination and disheartened casual conversation.” From this iconoclastic base, the author proceeds to use language so unique yet so reflective of Chippewa communicative patterns that it may bewilder Western readers.
The narrative, enclosed in the envelope pattern that creates its structural frame, consists of a selection of vignettes about the grandchildren of Novena Mae Ironmoccasin and Luster Browne and of memoirs by these two. Luster is a caring trickster who tells his tales more to amuse than to inform.
As in most of Vizenor’s writing, characters from previous works recur. Griever de Hocus is a de facto member of Luster Browne’s family, accorded family membership by decree rather than birth. The stories, imbued with a sense of the magical, the mythical, and the mystical, can be read in random order.
Vizenor sets the early vignettes in Bejing or Tianjin, where he taught during part of 1983. He shifts focus from China to Patronia, the imaginary baronetcy on the White Earth Reservation that Luster Browne received from President Theodore Roosevelt. This far-reaching baronetcy extends to an anthropological museum at the University of California at Berkeley.
Vizenor obviously is not constrained here by reality or by an attempt to depict actual or fictional events in ways that seem reasonable to Western readers. Luster’s land holdings also include the Native American Indian Mixedblood Studies Department of the University of California, a take-off of the Department of Native American Studies with which Vizenor was affiliated at the University of California at Berkeley.
Vizenor uses the trickster to release the stereotypical, frozen mind-sets of Westerners, to free them from the linear thinking that they consider rationality. Vizenor’s presentation of life is not structured in consistent, rational patterns, but that is not to imply that it is deficient any more than the world that an author such as Lewis Carroll created in Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1872) is deficient. Rather, it is refreshing and liberating to readers who surrender themselves for transportation to a new universe.
Bibliography
Blaeser, Kimberly M. Gerald Vizenor: Writing in the Oral Tradition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
Hochbruck, Wolfgang. “Breaking Away: The Novels of Gerald Vizenor.” World Literature Today 66 (Spring, 1992): 274-278.
Isernhagen, Hartwig. Momaday, Vizenor, Armstrong: Conversations on American-Indian Writing. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
Lee, A. Robert, ed. Loosening the Seams: Interpretations of Gerald Vizenor. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Press, 2000.
Owens, Louis, ed. Studies in American Indian Literatures 9 (Spring, 1997). Special issue devoted to Vizenor.
Vizenor, Gerald. Interior Landscapes: Autobiographical Myths and Metaphors. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990.