Abstract

Joseph Maurone examines the Trickster—that mischievous character who challenges conventional boundaries and distinctions and who plays a crucial role in much of the world's mythology and folklore. Maurone rereads the fiction and life of Ayn Rand as an expression of the Trickster's quest to invert traditional mores. Using the insights of writers as diverse as Lewis Hyde, Carl Jung, Carl Kerenyi, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Maurone examines Promethean and other Trickster archetypes in Rand's work. He views Rand herself as the real-life Trickster incarnate; her personal failings provide an opportunity for post-Randian thinkers to move Objectivism beyond its residual dogmatism