Mythologist Hyde to speak on art and the "trickster" figure

Lewis Hyde, recipient of a 1991 MacArther "genius" award and renowned writer and thinker will be in Oberlin on Tuesday for a lecture based on his newest book, Trickster Makes this World: Mischief, Myth and Art.

Hyde, whose work has been classified in disciplines as diverse as anthropology, philosophy, literary criticism and theology, will speak to a College audience on the theme of his most recent book: the character of the "trickster" and its relationship to art.

Hyde has received praise from many of his contemporary thinkers and writers. Writer Robert Bly called Hyde "the most subtle, thorough and brilliant mythologist we now have."

Author Margaret Atwood, who recently reviewed Hyde's two books in the Los Angeles Times, heaped praise on Hyde's ideas and his books. Impressed by his ability to shed light on seemingly simple things, she identified him as an "asker of naive questions that turn out to be the reverse of naive."

Atwood called Hyde's books "masterpieces ... of making connections that seem both absolutely true and absolutely obvious once Hyde has made them, but which we've somehow never noticed before."

Hyde's first book, called The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property, examined the "economy" of gifts and the relationship between gift-giving and artistic creation.

His newest book, which will be the topic of Hyde's talk at Oberlin, deals with the role that tricksters play in culture. He explores the idea that art is an embodiment of the trickster spirit.

Tricksters, Hyde said in an interview, are characters who keep our culture from becoming stale. "Human structures have a way of becoming rigid and self-protecting. Tricksters keep things flexible and fluid," he said.

Lewis Hyde will lecture on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in King 306. His topic will be "Trickster's Art."