“Soon as I saw him, my heart skipped a beat.” A structure analysis of romantic narratives by young Ghanaian women

Abstract

Research on how young women in urban African cities talk about their love moments with their romantic partners is rare. This study examined the narrative structure of romantic love narratives as told by 12 first year Tourism and Hospitality Management female students in an English-medium public university in Ghana. The analysis showed that the background component of the stories was used by the young women to conceptualize about love, guard against heartbreaks, and/or to be adventurous. The study identified two types of complication, circumstantial complication and complication of intent, which led the narrators to evaluate the situations surrounding their associations with their partners. The study has implications for understanding the logic of love, cultural, and sexual development among young Ghanaian women.