Primary folkloric issues include:
Betwixt and Between
The works of the following folklorists influenced the book:
Barbara Babcock’s 1975 article “‘A Tolerated
Margin of Mess’: The Trickster and His Tales Reconsidered” (Journal
of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 11, pp. 147-186) is the starting point
for much of the analysis in The Trickster and
Reversal and blurring of binary oppositions characterize
both the trickster and the paranormal. Structuralist and Jungian
perspectives help explain those processes.
William Clements’ articles “The Interstitial Ogre”
(1987) and “Interstitiality in Contemporary Legends” (1991) are highly
relevant to paranormal themes. Bill Ellis’ study of legend-trips
demonstrated the liminal features of those brief excursions that seek supernatural
The trickster’s association with the paranormal has
long been recognized. For instance, Enid Welsford’s classic The
Fool: His Social and Literary History (1935) has an entire chapter
titled “Origins: The Fool as Poet and Clairvoyant.”
The paranormal today contains a wealth of material
for the folklorist. It is only beginning to be mined. The
Trickster and the Paranormal contains many case studies and
shows how ideas from folklore can be applied.
In the nineteenth century the Folk Lore Society debated
psychical research. Edward Clodd was a debunker, and Andrew Lang,
a proponent, served as president of the Society for Psychical Research.
In the mid 1990s the author participated in the Belief
Interest Group organized by David Hufford at the Department of Folklore
and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania.