Gesture and narrative structure. A case analysis

This paper examines the correlation between the parts of a narrative and the gestures that accompany it. Labov (1972), Labov and Fanshell (1977) proposed that oral narratives are composed of abstract, orientation, complication, evaluation, and coda. According to Hopper and Thompson (1980), the complication in narratives coincides with foreground structures, and the remainder, (i.e., abstract, orientation, evaluation and coda), with background structures. This study analyses a story told by an informant from Caracas first in its narrative components, then, according to the sentences accompanied by gestures. Gestures, in turn, were described according to the methodology used, inter alia, by Liddell and Johnson (1989), Pietrosemoli (1991) and Oviedo (2000) for sign languages, and classified following McNeill (1992) Poggi and Magno (1998). The analysis indicates a strong preference for gestures and pantomimes in the complication and evaluation, and for abstract deictic gestures in the orientation. This leads us to question the evaluation as a background structure and to suggest that the complication rests on the evaluation, creating a strong textual-emotional device that allows the story-teller not only to recount a good sto, but to persuade the listener to take her/his side.