I LIBERIA II
5. The Gouro tale structure
compensatory escape from the hardships, the inequalities, the injustices of everyday life."(Dundes 1965: 298)
* Recreation: Storytelling among the Gouro is also a popular form of recreation for people of different ages. If in the first place education and social control are the end, entertainment is the means for ensuring the effectiveness of these first two functions. The event brings together children and adults, and all are free to listen to each other, to share jokes, and to laugh. Storytelling is always an event during which creative imagination takes free flight with metaphoric characters and their funny actions. During a performance songs are sung and dance may be performed to the delight of the audience. The audience participation to a performance without any restriction of gender or age makes storytelling the most popular form of amusement among the Gouro.
BEGINNING Exposition
BODY Crisis Rising Action Complication
Climax
Falling action (denouement)
END
Last suspense Dynamic Stability Conclusion
a.) Opening of a story: a Gouro story always starts with a 'dynamic stability', which is an initial order. The order is disturbed somehow by some event and the situation rises into complications.
b.) Body: This is the body of complications stemming from various crises brought about by the disturbance of the initial order. The body thus develops into actions till it reaches a climax.
c.) End: Once the climax is reached, the story then comes to a denouement in a falling action. In most cases, the denouement takes place through a last suspense,and the story ends.
The least to note, at this point, is that this structure is rooted in the theatrical moral regulation, raising the very question about man's existence: His birth (beginning of life), his growth (Active life), and his death (end of his life).
This can be assimilated to the morals of the classical Greek Drama which originated in the festivals of the nature god,Dionysus,in the 5thCentury B.C.
The festival which was the celebration of Dionysus, the fertility god, developed into a social satire in the form of tragoidia, Tragedy. The dramatic structure of the Tragedy was then to the effect of the sojourn of man on earth, from his birth, to his growth, then to his death. The essential question that rules from both man's existenceand such a narrative structure is the way in which the Gouro present in their narratives their concern of being forever torn between the seeming irreconciliables of good and evil. In fact, the Gouro seek the sense of order outside themselves, through other characters. In other words, they construct a moral statement in the characters of their tales in the good and evil designs of others. The Gouro tales thus explore the Gouro people's perception of life. As such, their understanding of life through the narrative characters includes a degree of psychological insight that is not immediately given at birth, but that is acquired during growth through learning and experience.
As the Gouro tales in their general structure involve the disruption of social harmony by some villainous being; the resolution usually brings the villain into confrontation with a heroic character who diminishes its destructive nature. This is for example,the case of:
- A trickster who always tricks an antagonist or a group. The tricksters that are most frequently present in the Gouro tales are ji Clin kwanen or lithe clever Fox" and Colo tonen, or Colo "the Spider", who continually tricks large and dangerous animalssuch as the Elephant, Panther and other fierce creatures. But Fox and Spider are tricksters of opposing morality. The
tales where Fox features always see a happy ending. Fox overcomes his opponent (s) and therefore is highly praised for his useful tricks. On the other hand, the tales where Spider features mostly have a tragic ending. Sir Colo, the Spider, who is believed to have been a colossus in bygone days, more often ends up being a victim of his own tricks and therefore gets beaten up and flattened: hence its small body today.
*In the first case, the protagonist increases his powers by some fortunate means or with the help of a 'donor' to overcome his antagonist(s): e.g.a hot- food-eating contest is won by Fox who took time to cool his dish by going around the whole animal community and calling each animal to witness when he eats the hot dish.
*In the second case, the protagonist increases his powers with tricks, but gets punished and dies when the trick is discovered. Eg:. Sir Spider, having informed his maternal community that he owns an elephant as a slave- carrier, invites Elephant on a friendly visit to his maternal village. On their way, he persuades Elephant that according to Spiders' customs a distinguished guest should be mounted on and be protected against undesired flies. But soon, Elephant discovers the trick when the maternal village community praises Spider's magnificent look on top of his so-called
'slave-carrier'. He drops him off his back and crushes him.
The tricks of Spider and Fox teach various means by which a smaller or a weaker being can triumph over bigger or stronger beings. But, at the same time, the morals of their tricks advise that one must be careful when playing a trick, otherwise one will pay the price as Spider does in stories. In short, they teach how to behave in life.
- Other tales that address different aspects of Gouro social life. Human characters are often present in the tales. They journey through the permeable boundaries of the animal world and the world of the dead in their quest for truth, order, and wisdom. In Cope's words, " the human stories seem to express the concern of man'ssense of insecurity, his anxieties, fear and doubts. They are serious and complex, employ symbolism and present polarities, and could be regarded as philosophical statements". (1978: 185).
Gouro narratives usually feature protagonists who go through certain adventures where they face obstructive characters. The protagonists then learn to overpower their antagonists.
The characters that are actually involved in the story, 'the actants' (Greimas 1970, term corresponding to Propp's 'dramatis persona') operate at the narrative deep structure. They determine the actions and keep the story-line moving. They describe the adventurousinteraction between good doers and wrong doers.