Discussions of storytelling and narrative have encompassed abstraction in different ways including master narratives (Bamberg, 1997) and storylines (Harré & van Lagenhove, 1998). These discussions, however, have often viewed storytelling and abstraction as a binary distinction, rather than a spectrum where speakers move between different levels of abstraction when recounting experiences. This article argues for a nuanced approach to abstraction in storytelling that considers how specific details of stories – namely, actors, actions, contexts, and time – are excluded or abstracted in the recounting of experience, with a link between increased abstraction and implied moral judgement. The article first outlines the theoretical basis for this argument, and then shows specific examples of abstraction taken from stories about religious experience. Finally, the productive implications of a nuanced view of abstraction are outlined, including for narrative and discourse analysis, for understanding of storytelling and cognition, and for critical analysis of racist language.

中文翻译：

---

讲故事中的抽象


关于讲故事和叙事的讨论以不同的方式涵盖了抽象，包括主叙事（班贝格，1997年）和故事线（哈雷和范拉根霍夫，1998年）。然而，这些讨论通常将讲故事和抽象视为二元区别，而不是说话者在讲述经历时在不同抽象层次之间移动的光谱。本文主张在讲故事中采用一种细致入微的抽象方法，即考虑故事的具体细节——即演员、动作、背景和时间——是如何在经验的叙述中被排除或抽象的，以及增加的抽象和隐含的道德判断之间的联系。文章首先概述了这一论点的理论基础，然后展示了从有关宗教体验的故事中提取的抽象的具体例子。最后，概述了细致入微的抽象观点的生产性影响，包括对叙事和话语分析、对讲故事和认知的理解以及对种族主义语言的批判性分析。