Deadpool – Anti-Hero, Trickster? Both, Neither? Master’S Diploma Thesis
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Tomáš Lukáč Deadpool – Anti-Hero, Trickster? Both, Neither? Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. 2019 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Tomáš Lukáč 2 I would like to thank everyone who helped to bring this thesis to life, mainly to my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. for his patience, as well as to my parents, whose patience exceeded all reasonable expectations. 3 Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5 Tricksters across Cultures and How to Find Them ........................................................... 7 Theory behind Antiheroes .............................................................................................. 20 The Character of Deadpool ............................................................................................. 22 Comic Book History ................................................................................................... 22 History of the Character .............................................................................................. 23 Films ............................................................................................................................... 25 Synopsis ...................................................................................................................... 25 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 27 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 29 Media Cited ..................................................................................................................... 31 4 Introduction This master thesis deals with number of topics and wide-spreading notions. It tries to recognize, what it means for a character to be a trickster and what it means to be an antihero. This effort itself is an extremely difficult task to do – to define a trickster, a mythological character who is also called a boundary figure and/or crosser, a figure who is well known for their never-ending crossings of the boundaries, be it physical ones or the ones created by cultures and societies to constrain the people within. Discussions dealing with the topic of tricksters, their definition and recognition are numerous. This thesis is based on couple of sources dealing with the topic. It derives, although indirectly, from Paul Radin’s book The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology (1956) and Carl Jung’s essay “On the Psychology of the Trickster” in the same book. These two pieces, each on their own are the cornerstones of any research into the problematics of the trickster issue. Despite the fact that nowadays most of the authors distance themselves from these works in some aspects1, their influence on the following research is of enormous importance, as most of the further research was based on their works. In addition to Jung’s and Radin’s works, this thesis draws mostly from the book of collection of essay by various authors, including its editors, William G. Doty and William J. Hynes, Mythical Trickster Figures. Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms (1997). Based on the idea that trickster figures display similar features and characteristics across the cultures allows them, as well as the authors contributing in the collection to look at the issue at micro and macro level – unique, local features of tricksters discussed versus their role across cultures. 1 The main issue is probably the scheme of cultural evolution, thus resulting in the idea that some societies and cultures are at a “childhood” stage of their development. 5 The second part of this thesis deals with the comic book character of Deadpool. Deadpool as a character underwent several major changes that completely changed the core features of the character. In addition to that, the character got to be adapted for the big screen – first notable adaptation is a 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which is generally considered as one of the worst character intros in the comic book films, which was followed by the 2016 film Deadpool (directed by Tim Miller and starred Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin and Ed Skrein) and its 2018 sequel Deadpool 2 (directed by David Leitch and starred Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin and Morena Baccarin) which will be analyzed in this thesis alongside the selected issues of comic books. Based on the theoretical outline, this thesis will try to determine, whether the character of Deadpool, Merc with a Mouth, is a trickster character, or he is just an antihero displaying some features of a trickster which are common to both characters. 6 Tricksters across Cultures and How to Find Them Across stories, legends and myths of numerous cultures and societies all around the world, from prairies and mountain ranges of North America to jungles and pampas of South America, from the cold north of Europe to the hot south of Europe, across all of Africa and Asia, one can find a character type, the whole set of one way or another similar figures. These figures bear similar set of features, characteristics and/or even functions. These figures are nowadays usually called tricksters. Trickster as a character type is incredibly difficult to describe. One of the factors contributing to such state is the fact that figures displaying trickster features (discussed later) can be found in the history of number of cultures across the world. Being such a world-spread phenomenon, trickster contains various aspects in various stories, many times very different. Differences do not end only in between different characters described as tricksters or different trickster figures across the globe. A single specific trickster can be sometimes found displaying two completely opposing features in stories of a single culture. According to Alan Velie, “the tribal trickster is not a single figure; tricksters differ greatly from tribe to tribe and even from tale to tale in the repertoire of the same tribe.” (122) This makes it that much more difficult to uncover the real face of a trickster, if it is even possible. While researching the topic of tricksters, from the very beginning arises the issue of how to study tricksters. There is a possibility to look at the topic of trickster figures at a micro level, to dive deep into the issue of trickster’s regional tribal appearances, his local contexts and meanings. On the other hand, when looking into the trickster issue at a macro level of character, the trickster arises as a phenomenon which can be viewed in a much broader sense and at a much larger scale – as a cultural expression. (Hynes and Doty, 3) 7 Trickster-like figures existed probably from the very beginnings of humankind, when the hierarchy of human life was predominantly dominated by the almighty gods and their creations. Although they often interact with humans, have relationships and families with them, based on the display of their powers they are higher than mere man, but lower than all-powerful gods despite them sometimes possessing god-like powers. In the attempt to put some label on the character of trickster, there were several significant authors outlining the basic principles of the trickster figure. One of them, by William J. Hynes, is represented in the book Mythical Trickster Figure. Contours, Contexts, and Criticisms, defines six main features of trickster figures: “the fundamentally ambiguous and anomalous personality of the trickster; a deceiver; a shapeshifter; a situation invertor; a messenger/imitator of the gods; and a sacred lewd bricoleur.” (“Mapping”, 34) It is important to note, that despite the fact that Hynes and Doty highlighted these six features, tricksters, although they usually do, do not necessarily display all of them, and can, in fact, display other features common to many of them. Similarly, Klaus-Peter Koepping states the following: Not all substantive traits, such as thieving or rebelliousness, are carried through all cultural traditions or diverse genres through time, and therefore not all jesters, fools, or picaros are tricksters, while the trickster might contain properties common to all. (qtd. in Doty and Hynes, 23) Similarly, Helen Lock correspondingly states the following: “it is a lot more difficult to find any critical consensus about their (tricksters’) essential nature: who or what they are, or can be.” As it was already mentioned, tricksters differ a great deal. Some of them display characteristics and features common to the most of them, some of them differ such a great deal that it is very difficult to even categorize them. Furthermore, tricksters can vary 8 greatly from story to story, even within the same groups telling the story. However, there are some features that can be generally described as common to the tricksters of most of the trickster stories told. First of all, it is important to note and highlight the reason behind labeling tricksters as “he”. Most of the tricksters around the world are male. Despite some tricksters’ ability to shapeshift and thus take on a female form and/or rare occurrences of female trickster figures, generally, tricksters are male. Lewis Hyde states: “all the standard