Abstract
The main goal of this book is to document, analyse and interpret the phenomenon of the spring man in broader historical, geographical, social, cultural, and especially folkloric and pop-cultural context. The book aims to reconstruct the history and "cultural evolution" of this peculiar phenomenon.
Contrary to the pop-cultural stereotype associating the spring man during the Second World War only with the Czech lands (or even only with Prague), this book conceptualizes this phenomenon as a "merely" regional or national version (ecotype) of a migratory international legend and of a narrative-cultural complex associated with this legend. This complex originated in Great Britain during the first decades of the 19th century, when so-called "prowling ghosts" appeared in working-class culture as a unique cultural expression of industrialized urban society.
A specific amalgamation of oral narratives, ostensive cultural practices, vernacular festivities and early forms of mass culture, had been thriving in working-class communities in most British industrial centres since the end of the 18th century. Most importantly, this cultural amalgamation gave birth to the historical predecessor of the Czech spring man, a (sub)urban jumping phantom usually called Spring-heeled Jack, who was most popular between 1837 and 1877.
After 1904, the narrative-cultural complex about Spring-Heeled Jack was then restructured as it became an international legend that migrated to several other European territories, most notably Russia, Germany and the Czech lands.