The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight (Hermeneutics: Studies in the History of Religions)
"Pelton has given us a  fine piece of scholarly work written in  a style  that is rich and impeccable."  --S. Modupe Broderick, African Studies  Review"Pelton leaves us . . . with a fuller sense of the significance  of  trickster in West Africa than we had been given in previous scholarship  but also  with a richer understanding of how irony defines our humanity."  --Richard  K.  Priebe, Research in African Literatures"The problem revealed in the trickster, by the trickster, is one  of  language, of words and images with which our perception of reality is  shaped.   With grateful nods to M. Eliade, C. Lvi-Strauss, W. Lynch, M. Douglas,  and  others, Pelton clarifies the problem and does so with an elegance and  wit worthy  of his subject. This is a book which will be read with ease and reward,  as well  as with sacred delight, I hope, by both layman and scholar in African  studies,  and by the anthropologist, folklorist, and student of religion of other  cultures."  --John Pemberton III, Journal of the American Academy of  Religion