Gênero causo: narratividade e tipologia

Abstract

This analysis has been developed according to Discourse Analysis principles and focuses on the semio-linguistic structures of story-tellers1 in the State of São Paulo. The objective is to examine the way thematic content, arguments and discursive structures are composed and how they reveal the imaginary of utterers, making it possible to recognize the categories that identify the particularities of this gender. The methodology of this work is inter-disciplinary, centering itself in postulates of discursive semiotics, developed by Algirdas J. Greimas; the rhetoric, brought up to date by Chaim Perelman; and the anthropology of the imaginary, based on Gilbert Durand. The constitution of the corpus resulted from two moments: examination of published material and field research, carried through in São Paulo countryside regions in order to interview story-tellers and to record their tales. The analysis has come to the following conclusions: this kind of tale constitutes a gender with definite discursive and thematic characteristics as well as specific semio-linguistic structures. These have been enough for the constitution of four categories: playful, that explores the laugh; critical, that is based on the irony; vengeance replies, that evidences the revenge; and terrifying, that awakes fear.

Story-tellers (contadores de causos in portuguese) are citizens usually from the countryside who are famous for the stories they tell to amuse or amaze people.