The trickster as a hero of the frontier, or on survival mechanisms in chaos

Purpose. The article explores the image of a trickster, and the peculiarity of its embodiment in world literature. Special attention is paid to the peculiarities of assignment and functioning of the trickster image in modern Russian literature: from camp prose with its interest in the “naked man”, and the weirdos of traditionalism, to the characters created in the postmodern era.