Face to Race

by Rosemary Onyango, Indiana State University

1    The increasing scholarly attention on the manifestation of tricksters in postmodern fictive narratives indicates the figure's significance as a motif and stylistic novelty. Among those who have contributed valuable insights into this topic are Jeanne Rosier Smith and Jeanne Campbell Reesman. Tannen's book supplements this growing body of literature in its creative and passionate accommodation of interdisciplinary perspectives. Although Hyde's article "Where are the Women Tricksters?", included in Reesman's volume, indicates that female tricksters are less prevalent in contemporary times, Tannen proclaims: "A female Trickster is among us. She stands visible at the crossroads of feminism, humor, depth, psychology and postmodernism, ready for us to unpack her bag of multiple meanings" (3).

2    Grounded in post-Jungian and postmodern psychological perspectives, Tannen traces the progression of the female Trickster in mythology, social institutions, literature and film revealing how the feminine identity has been shaped, redefined and liberated from various limitations. She views the use of a mature sense of humor as central to exposing the Trickster's wit, allowing her to reclaim her life. Inspired by the Nancy Drew Mystery Series of her youth and contemporary American works of fiction Tannen's thesis reflects her passion for this topic:

My thesis throughout this book has been that what has been manifested in the female body in the last half of the twentieth century, while certainly standing on the shoulders of all those witty women and men who have come before them, is a new variant of Feminine energy manifesting through humor which can be embodied in many forms: from heterosexual woman or man, a cross-dresser, a transvestite, a homosexual, and other gender forms not yet known or named. (240)

3    Divided into four parts, the book has fourteen chapters, detailed endnotes, a useful index and lengthy bibliography. Part I lays the groundwork for the study. Following a brief introduction and definitions in chapter 1, chapter 2 introduces the focal fictional female Tricksters: Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski, a lawyer and investigator; Sara Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, a feminist investigator concerned with issues of wealth, power and social justice; Barbara Neely's Blanche White, an African American worker that employs her Trickster energy to confront race, gender and class; and Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak, an attractive Native American with a sensitive and critical mind that discusses prejudicial attitudes within her own community. Chapter 3 provides theoretical frameworks for analyzing these and other female detectives.

4    Part II, "Calling upon the Ancestors," is a compelling exploration of the repression of women's imagination in institutionalized patriarchy detailing the social-economic, legal and political factors that influenced the evolution of women's autonomy in their role as wives, writers and professionals. Chapter 6, "Law and the imagination" exposes how the courts sanctioned gender bias before the 1970s, restricting women's right to vote, own property and become lawyers. Tannen attributes legal transformations to the growing consciousness of a male judge who witnessed the impact of gender bias on women in his courtroom in the 1980s and to women's own activism. Regarding the latter she states:

As women streamed into the legal profession in the 1970s and 1980s, they were the ones who could not avert their eyes from the legal enclosure women found themselves in and thus led in pushing through the cases which challenged sex-based discrimination. (91)

5    Additionally, Tannen's examination of various views about Trickster myths such as Native American's Winnebago and North West coast of America's Raven, is linked to and strengthens her treatment of women's humor in Parts III, "Honoring the Traditions" and IV, "Re/storation." According to Tannen, creative feminine identity arises from the women's role as bridge builders "between previously uncrossable boundaries and borders" (204). Another avenue for exploring humor is Sex in the City, which, in Tannen's view, exemplifies Trickster's re-emergence in popular media. Tannen stresses that besides their interaction with men, the focal characters bond with each other and "work their shape-shifting magic on every possible permutation of sexual adventure previously off-limits for women to "voice" in mainstream culture" (226). Exploring themes as varied as relationships, occupations and social justice, Tannen demonstrates how they weave words with humor to expose issues that society views as subversive.