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Delves into the meaning of stories, their tellers, and those who experience them.
In The Story Is True, folklorist, filmmaker, and professor of English Bruce Jackson explores the ways we use the stories that become a central part of our public and private lives. Describing and explaining how stories are made and used, Jackson examines how stories narrate and bring meaning to our lives. Jackson writes about his family and friends, acquaintances, and experiences, focusing on more than a dozen personal stories. From oral histories to public stories-such as what happened when Bob Dylan "went electric" at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival-Jackson gets at how the "truth" is constantly shifting depending on the perspective, memory, and social meaning that is ascribed to various events-both real and imaginary. The book is ideal for students and writers of oral history and storytelling but goes beyond those topics to encompass how we interpret and understand the real-life "stories" that we encounter in our daily experience.
This edition includes new sections on how stories are related to historical facts and new chapters on contemporary films (expanding the discussion of visual storytelling) and on conspiracy narratives and Trump's Big Lie. Fresh examples tie together new material with the existing stories.
From the Reviews of the First Edition
"The Story Is True is an expertly written narrative by a professional storyteller, which shows its ideas through its structure as much as it tells them with words." — Discourse Studies
"Jackson's book is a work every oral historian should read. It shows how stories inform many disciplines." — The Oral History Review
"The writing style is warm, lucid, and informal—at all times humane and accessible … Students will love its verve and informality. It will painlessly show them the importance of words and stories for politics, philosophy, and social interaction. This book could be the sort of introductory classroom text that turns students of narrative into enthusiasts." — The Journal of American Folklore
Introduction
PART I: PERSONAL STORIES
1. Telling Stories
2. The Fate of Stories
3. The True Story of Why Stephen Spender Quit the Spanish Civil War
4. The Doctor's Story
5. The Stories People Tell
6. Acting in the Passive; or, Somebody Got Killed but Nobody Killed Anybody
7. The Story of Chuck
8. Storytellers' Storytellers
9. The Deceptive Anarchy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
PART II: PUBLIC STORIES
10. Just the Facts
11. Stories That Don't Make Sense
12. Murder, Movies, Trials, and Kinds of Talk
13. The Real O.J. Story
14. Words to Kill By
15. Bob Dylan and the Legend of Newport 1965
PART III: SEEING IN THE DARK
16. Silver Bullets
17. Loose Ends in Night Moves
18. Making War, Making Movies: The Fog of War
19. Filming Gatsby
20. Fellini's Memory: Amarcord
PART IV: THE STORY IS TRUE
21. The Storyteller I Looked for Every Time I Looked for Storytellers
22. Farinata's Silence
Coda: Donald Trump's Big Lie
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index