Perspectives on the Jack Tales and Other North American Marchen

About this book

"This volume is about North American Marchen, a vernacular art form that has been strangely ignored or misconstructed by many. At the same time, the genre's vitality and appeal are evidenced by its persistent presentation as written literature. The essays in this volume re-examine common assumptions about "magic" tales and their tellers, reconsidering the performance, collection, transcription, publication, and interpretation of narratives that continue to live orally - especially in the private realm - as one mechanism of intergenerational communication or as symbolic articulation of worldview." "First published as a special issue of the Journal of Folklore Research (38:1-2, 2001), Perspectives on the Jack Tales and Other North American Marchen grew out of research presented at "American Magic: The Fates of Oral Fiction in the New World," a conference held at the University of Houston in October 1997. In addition to four interpretive essays, six segments feature narrators and their transcribed narratives, accompanied by contextualizing introductions. Some segments compare editing practices or narrative styles; others represent the first publication of contemporary narratives to tales that have long lain in archives, unheard and unavailable. All attest to the skill of the tellers and the artistry of their creations."--BOOK JACKET.