Emerging Horizons, Part Six. Bethany’s Story: Layers of Meaning

This six installment of the Emerging Horizons series explores Bethany’s digital storytelling (DST) experience (please see the introductory editorial, Crafting Meaning, Cultivating Understanding, to access the documentary film on which the series is based). In the film, Bethany demonstrates how a di...

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Main Authors: Michael James Lang, Catherine M Laing
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Calgary 2022-09-01
Series:Journal of Applied Hermeneutics
Online Access:https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jah/article/view/76026
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author Michael James Lang
Catherine M Laing
author_facet Michael James Lang
Catherine M Laing
author_sort Michael James Lang
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description This six installment of the Emerging Horizons series explores Bethany’s digital storytelling (DST) experience (please see the introductory editorial, Crafting Meaning, Cultivating Understanding, to access the documentary film on which the series is based). In the film, Bethany demonstrates how a digital story can become both a signpost and a monument in the life of an Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer survivor by indicating how they have changed, providing direction for their future selves, and creating a reminder of the meaningful moments that happened along the way. Her experience also reveals how DST can help participants craft a story with many layers of intentional meanings while the plurivocity of word, image and compositional elements of DST enables a profound hermeneutic excess (i.e., x = x+) and ensures that what is contained in a digital story is always more than what was intended by the storyteller. Using the screenwriting framework of the “said, unsaid, and unsayable,” and Nicholas Davey’s concept of “aquifers of meaning,” I (Lang) demonstrate how a digital story artwork can act as an artesian well, providing AYAs and their friends and family an encounter with the “unsayable,” by bringing to the surface what has been mute and beyond awareness.
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spelling doaj.art-9bd505ac0e8d4c0e95df515ba7b2ebba2023-04-20T04:04:36ZengUniversity of CalgaryJournal of Applied Hermeneutics1927-44162022-09-0120222022Emerging Horizons, Part Six. Bethany’s Story: Layers of MeaningMichael James Lang0Catherine M Laing1University of CalgaryUniversity of Calgary, Faculty of Nursing This six installment of the Emerging Horizons series explores Bethany’s digital storytelling (DST) experience (please see the introductory editorial, Crafting Meaning, Cultivating Understanding, to access the documentary film on which the series is based). In the film, Bethany demonstrates how a digital story can become both a signpost and a monument in the life of an Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer survivor by indicating how they have changed, providing direction for their future selves, and creating a reminder of the meaningful moments that happened along the way. Her experience also reveals how DST can help participants craft a story with many layers of intentional meanings while the plurivocity of word, image and compositional elements of DST enables a profound hermeneutic excess (i.e., x = x+) and ensures that what is contained in a digital story is always more than what was intended by the storyteller. Using the screenwriting framework of the “said, unsaid, and unsayable,” and Nicholas Davey’s concept of “aquifers of meaning,” I (Lang) demonstrate how a digital story artwork can act as an artesian well, providing AYAs and their friends and family an encounter with the “unsayable,” by bringing to the surface what has been mute and beyond awareness. https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jah/article/view/76026
spellingShingle Michael James Lang
Catherine M Laing
Emerging Horizons, Part Six. Bethany’s Story: Layers of Meaning
Journal of Applied Hermeneutics
title Emerging Horizons, Part Six. Bethany’s Story: Layers of Meaning
title_full Emerging Horizons, Part Six. Bethany’s Story: Layers of Meaning
title_fullStr Emerging Horizons, Part Six. Bethany’s Story: Layers of Meaning
title_full_unstemmed Emerging Horizons, Part Six. Bethany’s Story: Layers of Meaning
title_short Emerging Horizons, Part Six. Bethany’s Story: Layers of Meaning
title_sort emerging horizons part six bethany s story layers of meaning
url https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jah/article/view/76026
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