Wild/lives

Drawing on mythology, popular culture and analytical psychology, this study follows the trickster figure through contemporary film and television. Terrie Waddell argues that this archetype tends to appear in threshold places, both physical sites and unsettled mental states.

Waddell concentrates on productions set in remote or cut-off locations, examining how these charged zones of change mirror the mental vulnerability of the people who choose to be there and the people who are forced into them. The works under discussion are Deadwood, Grizzly Man, Lost, Solaris, The Biggest Loser, Amores Perros and Repulsion, which, each in its own way, explore marginality both within the self and in the world around it.

The book also contends that transition in drama does not always lead to a neat conclusion. Stories that keep the unease of change alive have become increasingly common, and the trickster thrives in this wild, unstable space, provoking an exchange between conscious and unconscious forces.