Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Beginnings and Endings (While the content of a sign language text can…
Beginnings and Endings
While the content of a sign language text can determine its point of closure, the form of the signs often works with it.
-
-
Formal parallelism
A piece also ends when it has reached a point in its structure to give expectations of ending, such as we see in an acrostic or in other ABC or number stories or poems.
Placing or directing signs to the center of the poet's signing space, or returning to a state of symmetry often signals closure.
A story has a beginning, middle and end.
Stories, poems and jokes all need some sort of orientation at the beginning so audiences can follow their presentation, and the last line often creates a satisfactory ending.
All sign language literature must be performed in some way, so the text can be framed by other performance devices such as the title and any gestures to indicate that the performance is about to begin or that it has finish (such as a nod or a bow).
The Ah ha moment that occurs when an audience experiences the full emotional impact of a poem, calling it the craking whip that get our full attention.
The rules governing the opening and closing of a story vary depending on the tradition and the genre of the story.
In folklore and oral situations, stories and jokes, can be described as the one about... rather than having a fixed title.
When sign language poems do have titles, they usually define or describe the content of the poems.
-
Signed performances of ten start with the poet's hands folded low in front of their bodies and their hands lowered.
They raise their head, look directly at the audience and may sign title before giving the title.
-
Sometimes the performer gives a brief introduction to the piece, highlighting some parts of it or drawing attention to a particular metaphor.
-
Audiences may also choose their own title for a sign language piece, especially if there is a particular arresting sign that makes it memorable.
-
To hook the audience from the start is even more important in poetry where a strong poem has a strong beginning to catch the audience's attention.
-
All poems and stories stop eventually, but a strong piece usually ends with closure that creates a coherent, complete and stable feel to the work.
The poet may open the poem again just after the expected point of closure, teasing the audience with the idea that what they though was the end is not so.
Some poems open with an image of the external world and close with an expression of though or emotion, while others open with an expression of though or emotion and close with an image of the external world.
Natural endings also occur when we can predict what will happen next so there is no need to tell us more.
Closure in many stories occurs when we have reached the natural end of the story and to go any further would require a major shift in plot.