Performance and experience in oral narratives on the border areas between Argentina, Brazil e Uruguay

In the frontier among Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay oral narratives transpose political limits. On circulating in this region, narratives reveal identities, traditions and even feelings. In these countries the practice of storytelling is a central aspect of a "culture of frontier", it is fundamental for transmitting values and knowledge. In this paper I present an specific aspect of this culture: the story-tellers performances and its importance on the organization and transmission of the experience of living in the frontier. Firstly, it is done a theoretical approach about the relationship among experience, performance and narrative definitions. Then, presenting two narratives – one a comic story, and the other a personal life narrative – I explain how concepts of "performance as an exhibition" and "performance as skill" can be useful to understand the different forms storytellers act in narrative events.