Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales and Their Tellers (Publications of the American Folklore Society. New Series) [Paperback]

William Bernard (ed.) McCarthy (Author), Cheryl Oxford (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Publications of the American Folklore Society. New Series | Publication Date: July 29, 1994

The "Jack" known to all of us from "Jack and the Beanstalk" is the hero of a cycle of tales brought to this country from the British Isles. Jack in Two Worlds is a unique collection that brings together eight of these stories as transcribed from actual performances by tellers and eight interpretive essays by leading folktale scholars.

The "two worlds" in the book's title refer to the Jack tales' popularity first among traditional Appalachian taletellers and now among storytelling revivalists. The tellers included in this volume represent both worlds. Unlike previous collections of Jack tales, in which the stories were heavily revised and rewritten, the tales in this volume have been transcribed verbatim and are presented in a format that preserves much of the oral quality of the taletellers' craft. The result is a body of richly nuanced tales that can be read with pleasure both by scholars who are studying the Jack tale tradition and by general readers who love a good story.

The taletellers are Stewart Cameron, Donald Davis, Ray Hicks, Bonelyn Lugg Kyofski, Maud Long, Frank Proffitt, Jr., Leonard Roberts, and Marshall Ward.

The essayists are Bill Ellis, Carl Lindahl, William Bernard McCarthy, W. F. H. Nicolaisen, Cheryl Oxford, Joseph Daniel Sobol, Kay Stone, Ruth Stotter, and Kenneth A. Thigpen.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Richard Chase made the"Jack" tales famous, but also-it turns out-altered them. (Jack, of "Jack and the Beanstalk" fame, is featured in a series of tales brought here from the British Isles.) The nine scholarly contributors here are clear about collecting norms and about the relation between the tale's history and the source family's or community's history. These essays bring the tellers, their world, and their styles to life. They combine insights into the tales and their traditional analog, especially in Britain, with attention to "revivalist" tellings. Fidelity to features of performance (e.g., transcription in lines to mark rhythm) inhibits casual reading, but it does reflect contemporary emphasis on individual creativity in process and performance within the tradition. Scholars will find this juxtaposition of tales and essays useful, and anything that sustains and spreads these vibrant stories should be applauded.
Patricia Dooley, Univ. of Washington Lib. Sch., Seattle
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

An important book for any student of folktale and storytelling.

Ethnologies

Scholars will find this juxtaposition of tales and essays useful.

Library Journal

All serious students of folklore, narrative and tale telling will find this volume an absolute MUST.

Come-All-Ye

A noteworthy and unique accomplishment in folk narrative scholarship.

Kenneth S. Goldstein, University of Pennsylvania

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (July 29, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807844438
• ISBN-13: 978-0807844434
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,362,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A core sample of American oral folktelling, June 11, 2008

By 

David H. Fenimore (Truckee, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales and Their Tellers (Publications of the American Folklore Society. New Series) (Paperback)

I use this excellent documentary source with success in a storytelling class I've taught periodically over the past 10 years. Jack tales are a rarified regional tradition as well as a type of folk hero tale with many connections to other North American and global oral traditions. Their geneology is here traced and illustrated by phonetic transcriptions of a number of performances by different generations of Jack tale tellers from the central Appalachians, each accompanied by an introductory essay. It's a useful case study of how a particular tale type entered the country and spread among a small localized and often related group of tellers, migrated into text form and then out again, and became in one sense the archtypal tale type of the American storytelling revival, thanks to the late Ray Hicks of Beech Mountain, who leads off the bunch and headlined the first decade or so of national festivals in Jonesborough, Tennessee.

Last fall after the festival I had the good fortune to visit my uncle's church in Banner Elk, at the foot of Beech Mountain, where I met a couple of Marshall Ward's former students, who remembered him telling Jack tales to assembled students every Friday after school.

Available elsewhere are audio versions of these Jack tales by at least some of the tellers included in this book: Ray Hicks, Marshall Ward, and Donald Davis.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great if you like Jack Tales, August 12, 2010

By 

Anne (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Jack in Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales and Their Tellers (Publications of the American Folklore Society. New Series) (Paperback)

This is great if you like Jack Tales. I'm not a huge fan and had it for a class, so I would prefer three stars. But for its purpose, it is very well written/edited and a great collection.