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Introducing Sign Language Literature, Folklore, and creativity Chapter 17 …
Introducing Sign Language Literature, Folklore, and creativity Chapter 17
Facial Expression
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Chinese Oral Literature
Vibeke Bordahl, in her study on Chinese oral literature, reports that apprentices of Chinese storytellers 'rigorously' study their masters facial expression together with the words
Such facial expression, together with the use of the eyes, is understood as 'the soul' of Chinese storytelling & we may suggest that in a similar way the facial expression & body posture of signing storytellers create the soul of sign language storytelling
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Gaze
Narrator Gaze
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This gaze is usually understood as the narrator's gaze as the performer looks straight at the audience to narrate, comment or explain what happens in the story
The performer here exists in the same time & space as the audience & invites us into the story world as him or herself, instead of putting on any poetic persona
Spotlight Gaze
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The function of this gaze is to foreground, reinforce & 'shed light on' what the hands are doing
By tracing the movement of their own hands, poets are inviting us to pay attention to them as well. This allows performers to focus on certain signs without altering the signs themselves
Reactive Gaze
Looks at the manual sign, but instead of highlighting & supporting the sign as in he case of spotlight gaze, it reacts to, reflects upon & sometimes even questions what hands are doing
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Panoptic Gaze
Aims to provide a holistic (& substantial) description of a poetic scene through the eyes & hands highlighting different parts of it
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This is especially useful when poets want to describe the idea of a lot of something. They only have two hands but their eyes can point to a third location to add depth in their description
Prescient Gaze
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Unlike spotlight or reactive gaze in which the eyes follow the hands, prescient gaze precedes manual signs
Mouth Actions
Adding Information
Like the eyes, the mouth can add several types of information to manual signs
Sometimes the information shown on the mouth is independent of that shown on the hands, producing a message that is the sum of the information on the mouth & on the hands
In Paul Scott's I Know Who (Stole My Heart) the poet explains how he went through an oral education throughout his childhood. He signs THROUGHOUT on his hands while his mouth enacts the forced speech. the meaning of 'being forced to speak throughout childhood' is created by combining these two components
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Mouth Gestures
Often evoke a vivid sensory image through their different visual appearances, such as open or closed mouth, tense or relaxed muscles, puffed or sucked-in cheeks, & round or pursed lips
The different ways of releasing air from the mouth, such as a smooth, continuous release of air, as opposed to rough & abrupt bursts of air can also create different images
Some of these mouth actions can be understood as representing Deaf performers' re-interpretation of 'sounds' & other sensory images associated with the action or object
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