Fear as strategy of deferrence and sentimental education in gerls'tales in Northern Cameroon

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show, in a rhetorical approach, how the production of emotions in girls’
tales in Northen Cameroon is part of a strategy of deterrence and effective sentimental education in
a traditional context. Based on the logical and pathetic evidence invested in the discourse (Amossy,
2000, pp. 291-320), this study demonstrates how the establishment of fear, in particular, provides
the storyteller with an efficient means of repressing parental disobedience the exogamic marriage
through the transmitted stories. It starts from tales from different cultural universes to analyze verbal
and narrative pathologies (Bolens, 2011) that actualize this feeling through the discourse, and thus
transfer it to the present juvenile audience.
Keywords: tales, pathos, deterrence, fear, juvenile audience.