In search of the holy story: an exploration of storytelling in relation to Heidegger's phenomenological model of art, and the power of storytelling to re-enchant the world.

Storytelling is a live event whereby individuals take on specific roles and cocreate an artwork in the form of a story-told. As a Heideggerian Artwork this discloses the Being of beings, specifically through a mode of engaging with beings which lets them be independent from the role of resource within a technological culture, in which all beings can become resources. This technological mode of engagement Heidegger calls enframing, and contrasts it with 'coming home' to 'the Holy', here called 'enchantment'. Enchantment is a more fundamental mode of engaging than enframing based in wonder, an openness which allows the enchanted individual to feel at home within the network of beings, rather than separate and above them. This process occurs in Storytelling through entering into an enclave of meaning within our own world but separated from the daily activities which require the ability to enframe. The story-told is embodied in the physicality of those present. By taking on the role of the storyteller, the teller directs the listener in adopting the appropriate attitude for becoming enchanted. The storyteller/artist has a special role to play. Whilst Art is rooted in human nature, it is not often practiced as a primary mode of Being within a culture where enframing is the norm, and the ability to step beyond enframing and into the Holy is necessary to be able to lead others in this process. Learning to do this in an enframed world is difficult, so Storytellers in these cultures tend to be those that lean towards it already, and have a resistance to enframing. It is not the narrative but the activity of the teller which directs the listener into an enchanted state, and therefore examining Storytelling as Art illuminates the power of Art-as-verb to reenchant the world.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Addis, Hayley

• B Athroniaeth (Cyffredinol)
• BH Estheteg
• NX Celfyddydau yn gyffredinol

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:1983