DEAF 402 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Chinese American Literature, African-American Literature, Deaf American
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Oral Traditions of the Deaf Community
- Deaf American Literature
o American literature is generally recognizes “as a ‘smorgasbord that includes
Native American literature, African American literature, Chinese American
literature, and Hispanic literature” (Peters, 2000, p. 2).
- Oral Traditions of the Deaf Community
o The Deaf community is part of “an ‘oral’ culture, a culture based on face-to-face
signed interaction, with writing and middle-class literacy playing little or no
role in much of the heart of the community. Like many other such cultures, it
has an active tradition of folklore and performance-centered ‘oral’ (signed)
narrative, encapsulating traditional values passed down from generation to
generation” (Gee, 1998, as cited in Bahan, 2006, p. 21)
o Folklore/Deaflore – stories about Deaf experience, history, culture, etc. passed
down through generations of storytelling
o Cultural Harmony – how individuals in the community share and perform stories
that can be related to the community through Deaf experience
- Carnival and Carnivalesque Discourse
o Performing, acting, exaggerating
o Peters (2000) explains that “Carnivals, festivals, fairs, and conventions are a
cornerstone of present-day Deaf culture… At carnivals, Deaf Americans feel
free to be themselves and to produce and distribute their literature. For this
minority culture, usually dispersed throughout the majority culture, carnival is
the site of communal celebration and liberation” (p. 32).
o Medieval
o Community Events
▪ Deaf Night Out
▪ Deaf Coffee Night
▪ Poetry Night
o Many different emotions
- Deaf American Jester
o Clown, someone for people to laugh at, etc.
o A representative of the carnival
o An artist who translates, interprets, mediates, and distributes knowledge
o A trickster who interprets “the wills and foibles of the majority culture to Deaf
Americans and in turn [communicates] to the hearing world, the needs, desires,
and aspirations of the Deaf world” (Peters, 2000, p. 9)
o An artists who is viewed not as a buffoon but as “a source of wisdom that arises
from their peculiar double perspective” (p. 27)
▪ Gallaudet
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