Border Crossings: Animals, Tricksters and Shape-Shifters in Modern Native American Fiction

Abstract

Animals, tricksters, shape-shifters and stories of the earth’s creation are all recurring elements in the folklore and mythology of Native American oral and literary traditions. Many contemporary Native American novelists, including Louise Erdrich, Thomas King and Gerald Vizenor, have drawn on these traditional stories to blur the boundaries between animals and humans, native and non-native cultures, and the earthly world and the fantastic.