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Sign Language Literature Chapter 9 - Coggle Diagram
Sign Language Literature Chapter 9
Plots, Protagonists, Subjects and Themes
We have often referred in previous chapters to what a certain sign language story, poem or joke is 'about'.
Plot
A plot is the sequence of events that make up a story. In creative signing, the content will be determined in part by its plot. Not all fictional work or creative signing has a plot, and some poems simply describe a scene or situation.
Man Against Monster
In sign language literature, protagonists often encounter a ' monster' (someone or something powerful that creates a problem for the protagonist). The stories that show how deaf people have survived and even thrived as deaf people, despite attempts by wider hearing society to stop them, are example of 'overcoming a monster'.
Raags to riches
In many plots, a protagonist lacks something specific at the start and gets it by the end of the story.
Plots, Protagonists, Subjects and Themes
Voyage and return
Although plots are linear, as events unroll through time, we saw in Chapter 8 that stories may end where they began. This can be seen in plots that represent 'voyage and return'. The protagonists leaves home for a journey (not always willingly or planned) and returns, usually changed in some way.
The Quest
In a quest, the protagonist deliberately sets out from home on a dangerous journey to seek something, often with companions. The quest of the Arthurian knights to find the Holy Grail is perhaps one of the best-known in English Literature.
Rebirth and Redemption
In these stories the protagonists redeems a bad situation, making it better.
Comedy
Brooker's notion of comedy is very different from our general modern understanding of the word. In his explanation, comedies are not necessarily humorous but are plots where there is a transition from ignorance to knowledge.
Tragedy
Brooker summarises the stages in a tragedy as: Anticipation (the hero is incomplete or unfulfilled), Dream (the hero commits to a course of action in order to find fulfilment and the actions seems to be working), Frustration (when things start to go wrong), Nightmare (as they spiral out of control) and Destruction.
Protagonists
The events that unfold in a plot usually relate to a protagonist, the character which whom audiences expect to be able to identify as they see the story unfold.
This protagonist might be the real author (in a genuine narrative of personal experience), the implied author (in a story told of 'someone like me'), the narrator or a character in the story.
Subjects and Themes
The subject of a story or poem is a concrete and literal topic, being what the text is 'about'.
Ben Bahan found three main themes that come up repeatedly in signed deaf narratives of personal experience:
Communication, language and values
Social prejudice and ignorance.
Sensory worlds.