The Wise Fool

Malta will host in December the first International Folk Narrative Conference on The Wise Fool in Narrative Cultures and the First International Malta Storytelling Festival with the participation of international storytellers. Folk expert Dr Mifsud Chircop writes:

..The trickster is one of the most complex figures in international folk narrative culture. On the one hand he incorporates – as culture promoter and founder – the traits of a hero; on the other hand, in his role as rogue and troublemaker he incorporates the traits of an opponent and disturber of existing order. He can appear alone but he is often the alter ego of the real hero and helps the latter to endow himself with extremely positive characteristics, because the trickster attracts to himself all that is ambivalent or negative. By means of these characteristics, the trickster is an extremely dynamic figure, who – even though in his different characteristic peculiarities – appears in the popular lore of all peoples or regions independently of time and geographical factors.

This conference intends to focus on the phenomenon of the trickster in the Mediterranean area and elsewhere. Thus the geographical areas involved include, on the one hand, the countries of southern Europe and on the other, the Islamic regions of the eastern and southern Mediterranean areas. It is the aim of the conference to examine the regional different peculiarities of the trickster figures, as well as to discuss possible connections, overlaps and completely different conceptualisations of the same.

Special emphasis will be given to the trans-national character of trickster culture, ie, if one can define this culture independently from regional, national, continental and such-like decisive frontiers. During the conference, emphasis will also be placed on discussing the contribution of folklore and its central characters to a European consciousness...