Abstract: (Excerpt from Introduction)

In this study, I intend to look at the existing literature on the American Indian trickster stories and compare them with those of Europe. I will explore how trickster stories are recorded in this continent, and examine their corresponding pattern in the Old World. It is my proposition that the trickster stories are losing much of their contextual meanings and increasinly taking a metropolitan form. A similar trend was noticed prior to the 19th century Europe where the advent of industrialization, rather capitalism, caused the traditional beast fables to be reduced into fairy tales.