ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines an account of narrative that we believe can foster better transnational, transdisciplinary discussions. The widespread use of narrative as an analytic category suggests that it can serve as a natural point of integration in the human sciences, but merely mentioning the term tells little about its meaning or potential for fostering collaboration. In reality, scholars are often quite unaware of discussions of narrative outside their own discipline, and this does little to encourage collaboration. A hallmark of narrative templates is the generic form of representation that they employ. In principle, it is possible for a narrative template to be so abstract that it would appear to be usable by any number of other national mnemonic communities. In contrast to narrative templates, which are conceptual abstractions posited by analysts, specific narratives take the form of overt utterances having an explicit surface form, and this has implications for how they fit into accounts of semiotic mediation.
