Suspending Narrative Engagements

Abstract

This article explores the way social actors organize their engagements in real time. The term “narrative” points to the subjectively understood practical projects that people structure with beginnings, middles, and ends. All projects may be interrupted, and if social actors are to continue the narrative engagement they must treat the stoppage as a mere suspension. The work of suspending a game of informal pick-up basketball is examined in three phases: interrupting the game, treating the game as suspended, and resuming play. In each phase, players collectively resist the possibility of abandonment as an alternative to game resumption. While narrative structuring is a powerful locus of meaning across diverse social contexts, informal basketball games offer a particularly good setting for the study of narrative organization in social life.