الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Tricksters are mythical figures that are used in various cultures and societies. They play tricks on others to break the social and traditional rules to reveal vital concepts in life. Tricksters are depicted in the form of animals such as spider, monkey and tortoise, or in the shape of ordinary human beings. Regardless of their forms, tricksters usually discuss critical issues through conveying direct and indirect messages. Therefore, they have significant role in different narratives. This thesis is devoted to explore the modern use of one of the mythical traditional trickster figures in four contemporary novels which are Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (2001) and Anansi Boys (2005), China Miéville’s King Rat (1998), and charles de Lint’s Forests of the Heart (2000). This study is to focus on the mythical spider god Anansi who is considered an effective and vital West-African trickster. The three writers are remarkable by their integration of the mythic and fantastic elements in their narratives in order to reflect a modern view for generating a new sense of mythological figures in modern world. In the selected novels, the writers highlight the modern essence of Anansi whose function is to entertain and provide a deep meaning to life. They give it a new literary vision for the traditional Anansi. Therefore, these novels are examples for a study of both modern fantasy fiction and mythical folklore. Also, this paper exposes an explanation of the theory of postmodernism because fiction and mythical figures are the ideal devices to study postmodernism in modern narratives.