Archetype of trickster in the western studies

The article dwells upon the concept of “trickster” in Western Cultural Studies. The author traces its evolution - from the appearance of the term in the works of American and English anthropologists through its development and elaboration by American and European psychoanalysts, folklorists, literature scholars, linguists, writers and ethnographers in the XX-th century and to the transition to a new level in the works of scholars in the area of culture studies of Native American ancestry in the beginning of the XXI-st century.