The Trickster Phenomenon in the American Initiation Novel

This article analyses the representation of the trickster phenomenon in the initiation novel, a fundamental genre in modern American literature. The work determines how specific characteristics of the phenomenon under consideration are revealed in a situation of synthesis of two cultural codes – archaic and modern – when a person is found in a situation of limit and crisis. The plot, themes, chronotope, the system of characters, and key motifs are the levels of poetics that reveal them. Methodologically, the research is based on the interaction of fictional, philosophical, and cultural types of discourse. The article refers to basic works related to the genre of the initiation novel (A. Sebold, J. Diaz, J. Green, and H. Yanagihara). The defining problem contexts of the study include the concept of the trickster as the hero of our time by N. V. Kovtun, initiation as a basic rite of passage by A. van Gennep, J. Campbell, and J. Fraser and its representation in fictional discourse by V. Ya. Propp, E. M. Meletinsky, and others. In a fragmented, turbulent space, cultural heroes alone prove unviable; their culture-creating impulse is associated with liminality, immersion in another world, changing guises, death/rebirth, and salvation through laughter. Due to the degree of catastrophism of the events happening to the characters (violence, trauma, crisis), conventional levels of meaning lose their relevance, as the path of the neophyte trickster is to achieve a super goal (by successfully completing initiation and through self-determination). The transitional stage of initiation is of particular importance, as it is associated with the rebirth of the neophyte trickster. The outcome of initiation depends on the ability for living transformation, trickery, vital ambivalence, foolishness, liminality, and play.