要想更进一步推进问题的回答，下一步的方法，也许是来看两个极短的叙事，以此来鉴定故事的基本元素。如果我们面对一个叙事文本，能够同意地说；“对，这是一个叙事而非别物”，那就说明必定存在着一些组建叙事的元素。那么，那些元素是什么呢？我把豪斯曼（A. E. Housman）的《棕熊》（”The Grizzly Bear”），和华兹华斯的《昏睡封闭了我的心灵》（“A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal”），作为我的微型例证。尽管它们是“诗篇”，它们当然也是叙事。请看：/ A further approach to an answer to my questions may be made by looking at two extremely brief narratives in an attempt to identify the basic elements of a story. These are the elements that must be there if we are to say, yes, this is a narrative and not some other thing. What are those elements? I take as my miniature examples A. E. Housman's “The Grizzly Bear,” and William Wordsworth's “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal.” Though they are “poems,” they are surely narratives too. Here they are: 图片: 请点击放大 这两个微型叙事包含我所提到的任何叙事的基本元素，即便是卷帙浩繁、叙述详尽之作如托尔斯泰的《战争与和平》，…