14.10.2012

The X-Files: The Trickster

[…]

The X-Files represents more than just a repeat of the traditional conspiracy rhetoric of staunch, larger-than-life, populist heroes battling secretive, omnipotent villains in order to safeguard the status quo of American culture. The show's unconventional narrative of the conspiratorial alliance between the government and extraterrestrials is held together by the unconventional nature of its protagonists in such a story. In fact, The X-Files' protagonists resemble an age-old character known as the "trickster." From Native American folktales to Greek mythology to contemporary American literature, the trickster is one of the most complex characters in legend. […]. Identified in various stories as a swindler and a selfish deceiver, or as a clown and a culture hero, the trickster essentially defies neat categorization […]. Such a character allows The X-Files conspiracy myth to popularize more than a standard tale of heroes challenging villains in a post-Cold War world. The trickster's "ambiguous and equivocal character" blurs the typical images of villainy and heroism in the contemporary myth, blurs the distinction between right and wrong, making this character essential to the fidelity of such a multi-layered story.

(Re-Reading the X-Files: The Trickster in Contemporary Conspiracy Myth; Hervorhebung von mir.)

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