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Introducing Sign Language Literature, Folklore, and creativity Chapter 9…
Introducing Sign Language Literature, Folklore, and creativity Chapter 9
Themes in Life & Deaf
The Poems in the Collection
Life & Deaf
Were composed by Deaf children & young people educated in the London borough of Greenwich
Like adults, many of the young poets make explicit reference to their Deafness in their poems in a variety of ways
Unusually, they often reflect negative attitudes to their experiences
The Young Poets may Express Ambivalence about their Deafness or a Sense of 'Inbetweenness'
For many Deaf activists, an acceptance of a Deaf identity has meant a single focus upon being a signing, Deaf person, committed to the Deaf world
Using signs in symmetrically opposing & yet balancing areas to the left & right, sixteen-year-old Sean Timon (In
Half Personal Poetry
) sums up his personality traits before describing his identity as half Irish & half Caribbean, half white & half black, half Deaf & half hearing and, finally, half signing & half speaking
Sarah Teacy is uncertain how to answer the question posed in
What's it like to be Deaf?
She shows an ambivalence that might be expected in a young person trying to discover their identity: 'Being Deaf is cool & not cool/It's sometimes hard to be deaf/..../But it's good in some ways I don't know why'
The Poems Express Deep Frustration to Hearing People's Attitudes
Tiffany Hudson says explicitly 'I hate being deaf' in
Just Like You
, but makes it clear that when her hearing friends sign 'then we are so smiley & happy, just like you.' This implies that it is not her Deafness she hates but the fact that others will not sign to her
Hayley McWilliams'
Street Signs
objects to the way that hearing people stare at her when she signs with her friends in the street, but she makes it clear that signing with them makes her 'Laughing, giggling, chatting, all in a good mood'
The problem is perceived as lying firmly with the hearing people's attitudes to her deafness & the signing that is the outward manifestation of her Deafness
Subjects & Themes
Subject
The subject of a story or poem is a concrete & literal topic, being what the text is 'about'
For example, the subject of Paul Scott's
Roz: Teach a Dog a New Trick
is a dog that chases clumsily-thrown balls
The subject of
Macbeth of the Lost Ark
, is the quest of a person who must choose a way to create light
Theme
The events that occur in the piece & 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, & power
Themes are timeless, universal ideas that are relevant to everyone
The themes are rarely stated clearly & sometimes they only emerge after the reader has thought in some depth about what the text is 'trying to say'
Three Main Themes that come up in Signed Deaf Narratives of Personal Experience
Communication, Language & Values
Social Prejudice & Ignorance
Sensory Words
Protagonists
The Plot Usually Relates to a Protagonist
A protagonist is a character with 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
Age, gender or physical appearance of the protagonist do not matter much in sign language literature
Deaf Protagonist
In most sign language literature, audiences identify particularly strongly with a Deaf protagonist
Sometimes the storyteller explicitly says the protagonist is deaf by using the sign DEAF. More often the content of the story makes this clear, with perhaps the most obvious being that the protagonist uses sign language
The protagonist may use specifically Deaf technology such as a hearing aid, cochlear implants or flashing lights or vibrating alarms
Characters naturally engage in behavior that Def people identify as Deaf - tapping someone for attention, lipreading or standing in a circle
Non-Human Protagonist
Non-human protagonists are popular in sign language literature
Audiences can identify with them because they are portrayed as having human emotions & often go through similar life stages
Non-humans also battle against surrounding forces
In many sign language stories, Deaf audiences see the non-humans' struggles as metaphors for Deaf people's struggles within hearing society
Plot
Creative Signing
The content will be determined in part by its plot
Not all fictional work or creative signing has a plot, & some poems simply describe a scene or situation
The traditional haiku form expressly rejects the idea of plot & instead aims to create a single snapshot image of a moment
Deaf Communities are Bilingual & Bicultural
Signers are familiar with at least some of the folklore or other creative culture of surrounding hearing societies
Internationally widespread stories, especially those that have been made into popular films (Cinderella, Ugly Duckling, Little Red Riding Hood) have influenced Deaf signers around the world
Deaf & Hearing people share their own folkloric traditions & cultural history with their national communities
When signed pieces are original works rather than translations of works from outside the deaf community, the plots also reflect (in some way) a Deaf person's view of the world & of how to live in it
Stories in all Cultures Draw on Seven Universal Plots
Man against Monster, Rags to Riches, Voyage & Return, The Quest, Rebirth, Comedy & Tragedy
The use of the same fundamental plots can be used to see patterns in sign language literature, but we can expect them to take a specifically Deaf cultural approach
One story can have several plots within it, we can see that sign language literature also draws on these plots