The Chaotic Freedom Fighter: Anonymous as the Trickster of Cyberculture

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: Sep 25, 2015
Keywords:
trickster, Anonymous, hacktivist, troll, cyberculture

Main Article Content

Eva Valentova
Masaryk University

Abstract

This article explores the connections between the hacktivist movement Anonymous and the mythical trickster figure. It takes up the features identified by scholars such as Lewis Hyde and William J. Hynes as typical for the trickster and examines them in the context of hacktivist culture. While Anonymous shows many of the core trickster characteristics, it differs from mythical tricksters in two important aspects: its plural nature and the fact that it is a real world entity. However, the cultural role they play is the same: they question rules, challenge assumptions and test limits, preventing stagnation. The article then offers a new perspective of studying the trickster: as a symbolic expression of an important social function.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Valentova, E. (2015). The Chaotic Freedom Fighter: Anonymous as the Trickster of Cyberculture. New Directions in Folklore, 13(1/2), 44–70. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ndif/article/view/20035
Issue
Vol. 13 No. 1/2 (2015)
Section
Articles
Materials published in New Directions in Folkloreremain the property of their authors.  NDiF strongly prefers and encourages authors to honor the journal with exclusive rights to their work for the period of one year following its initial publication; however, authors may offer their work for reprint as they see fit. Submissions may be withdrawn at any point during the review process. Once the material has been published in NDiF, however, it becomes part of the NewFolk record and cannot be removed.Likewise, NDiF may emend the appearance of materials to maintain a consistency of design, but will make as changes to the text only proofreading corrections requested by the author. At the author’s request, and with the agreement of the editor, additions and amendments may be added as separate files to the table of contents.

 

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Derivative License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

4. While NDiF adopts the above strategies in line with best practices common to the open access journal community, it urges authors to promote use of this journal (in lieu of subsequent duplicate publication of unaltered papers) and to acknowledge the unpaid investments made during the publication process by peer-reviewers, editors, copy editors, programmers, layout editors and others involved in supporting the work of the journal.