Plots, Protagonists, Subjects and Themes
The purpose of certain forms of literature affects their content.
Protagonists
Plots
Plot
Realist Movement (second half of the 19th century)
Modernists (early 20th century)
Ex: The function of text could be to
to encourage other people to change their behavior
to express personal feeling
offer praise (maybe to God)
to change society
to teach facts or merely to play with languages
produced subjective, intimate literature with idealistic perspectives
focused on form of language as a way to represent an idea visually.
A plot is the sequence of events that make up a story.
Sign languages, as kinetic languages, are natural vehicles for showing action, and where action leads, plots soon follow.
Not all fictional work or creative signing has a plot, and some poems simply describe a scene or situation.
Deaf communities are bilingual and bi-cultural, and signers are familiar with at least some of the folklore or other creative culture of surrounding hearing societies.
Deaf and hearing people share their own folkloric traditions and cultural history with their natural communities.
When signed pieces are original works rather than translation of works from outside the deaf community,the plots (in some way) also reflect a deaf person's view of the world and of how to live in it.
Little Red Ridinghood
the Ugly Duckling
Cinderella
Voyage and Return
Th Quest
Rags to Riches
Rebirth or Redemption
Man against Monster
Comedy
The monster may be human, animal or plant. (in whatever form, it has some human characteristics)
The monster can also be more abstract problems, such as fear, ghilt, or ignorance.
In sign language literature, protagonists often encounter a monster (someone or something powerful that creates problems for the protagonist)
A protagonist lacks something specific at the start and gets it by the end of the story.
Transformation of lack (rags) to liquidation of lack (riches)
Plots are linear, as events unroll through time.
The protagonist deliberately sets out from home on a dangerous journey to seek something, often with companions.
Usually at some level for the deaf protagonist to find their deaf identity or their true home in the deaf community.
The protagonist often needs to find a path between perilous opposites to achieve their goal.
The protagonist redeems a bad situation, making it better.
Tragedy
Comedies are nor necessarily humorous but are plots where there is a transition from ignorance to knowledge.
Stories with a happy ending of liberation, fulfillment or understanding are comedies.
The protagonist in a comedy is essentially a good person who will find fulfillment.
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 fulfillment and the actions seems to be working)
Frustration (when things start to go wrong)
Nightmare (as the spiral out of control)
Destruction
This protagonist might be:
The implied author (in a story told of someone like me)
The character with whom audiences expect to be able to identify as they see the story unfold.
The real author (in a genuine narrative of personal experiences)
A character in the story
The narrator
Subjects and theme
The subjects of a story or poem is a concrete and literal topic, being what the text is about.
The events that occur in the piece and the behavior of the characters that form its subject will be ways to represent the theme.
Themes are higher-order abstract ideas, such as life, death, eternity, justice, youth, fear, love and power.
Three main themes in signed deaf narrations of personal experience:
Communication, language and values
Social prejudice and ignorance
Sensory worlds
Theme are universal and timeless, they relate to society, which is not universal, so it is important to understand how a deaf poet's view of society is reflected in the universal themes.
Themes are often shown through thematic personifications- representing them through a person experiencing that particular theme.
Sign language offers an ideal means for thematic personification as poets can embody an abstract notion.