Acquire an ObjectReader with ObjectMapper#readerFor(TypeReference) using a TypeReference describing the typed collection you want. Then use ObjectReader#readValue(JsonNode) to parse the JsonNode (presumably an ArrayNode).

For example, to get a List<String> out of a JSON array containing only JSON strings

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
// example JsonNode
JsonNode arrayNode = mapper.createArrayNode().add("one").add("two");
// acquire reader for the right type
ObjectReader reader = mapper.readerFor(new TypeReference<List<String>>() {
});
// use it
List<String> list = reader.readValue(arrayNode);

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
List<Employee> e = new ArrayList<Employee>();
ArrayNode array = mapper.valueToTree(e);
ObjectNode companyNode = mapper.valueToTree(company);
companyNode.putArray("Employee").addAll(array);
JsonNode result = mapper.createObjectNode().set("company", companyNode);

Since Jackson 2.11 methods readerForListOf and readerForArrayOf are available. Thus your code will look like the following:

JsonNode jsonNode = getJsonPayload();
JsonNode partial = jsonNode.path("someArrayField");
List<String> z = new ObjectMapper().readerForListOf(String.class).readValue(partial);

Moving my comment to an answer, as it got upvoted a lot.

This should do what the OP needed:

new ObjectMapper().convertValue(jsonNode, ArrayList.class)

Just iterate the array in reverse order. Take care to save succ between iterations, and keep n ready for the final return.

public Node arrayToList(int[] a) {
  Node succ = null;
  Node n;
  for (int i = a.length-1; i >= 0; i--) {
    n = new Node(a[i], succ );
    succ = n;
  }
  return n;
}

First create a mapper :

import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;// in play 2.3
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();

As Array:

MyClass[] myObjects = mapper.readValue(json, MyClass[].class);

As List:

List<MyClass> myObjects = mapper.readValue(jsonInput, new TypeReference<List<MyClass>>(){});

Another way to specify the List type:

List<MyClass> myObjects = mapper.readValue(jsonInput, mapper.getTypeFactory().constructCollectionType(List.class, MyClass.class));