The Poetics and Politics of Deaf American Literature -- Cynthia Peters Colloquially termed deaf lit, Deaf American

literature is an evolving, polyglossic body of works comprising a wide range of vernacular (signed), written, and hybrid forms -- those exhibiting both vernacular and written features. Deaf American literature therefore encompasses the following forms and genres: ASL stories and poetry, plays in ASL and printed English, stories in English (original or translated from ASL), and novels and poetry in English. When it comes to the more nativist or indigenous forms, the ABC story/poem, number story/poem, face story, drum song/story, literary night (as framework or vehicle), improvisation, slow-motion story/poem, and skits are some of those that can be identified. On a broader level, Deaf American literature, like African American, Hispanic, Chinese American, and Native American literatures, can be termed a minority literature. As is the case with other minorities, Deaf Americans exist within and without the mainstream American culture. What results is a body of works in which, in general, the majority language (English) and rhetoric seeks to dominate and extend its control and the minority language (ASL) and rhetoric attempt to undermine and evade this control. In other words, Deaf American literature, in the vein of other minority literatures, rebels against mainstream American literature, in the process using it (in all senses and connotations of the word) to suit its own purposes and needs. A time-honored method of rebelling is the utilization of humor in various forms of expression, ranging from outright burlesque and parody to subtle satire and disingenuous comedy. M.J. Bienvenu, a noted Deaf Studies scholar, has been known to say that Deaf Americans have five senses, as we know people generally do. Yet, how can Deaf Americans possibly have five senses? The answer to this is:

they dont have the sense of hearing or have it fully but they have the sense of humor. (Peters, 2000) Thus, Deaf Americans resemble other minorities in that they tell and write humorous stories to a large extent. They laugh a lot -- at the majority, at themselves, at both themselves and the majority. This can contribute to a sense of equality or even a feeling of superiority at times. And, those members of the majority who can comprehend such culturally-based stories will undoubtedly find much that is humorous in the various portrayals of majority or minority behavior, learn from it, and even act upon it in a way that can be beneficial for both. An example of this is Deafology 101: A Crash Course in Deaf Culture, an entertaining mock lecture by Ken Glickman (a.k.a. Prof. Glick) on Deaf American culture. Prof. Glick pokes fun not only at mainstream society and its expectations of Deaf Americans but also at Deaf American culture itself. The action all begins when Prof. Glick, sporting baggy shorts, rumpled lab coat, a big bow tie, disheveled hair, and black-rimmed glasses, comes striding on stage smoking a pipe, his appearance obviously satirizing absent-minded professors and the educational system that nourishes them. The professor describes Deaf American culture and the mainstream culture that it is and is not a part of. He asks, What is Deaf Culture? He answers with, It is deafined as a wonderful way of life that is unheard of. That will be on your test. Pacing back and forth between blackboard and podium, Glick goes on to state that deaf people interact with those people who cant help but hear, noting that The world is full of hearing people. Lets shorten that to hearies. He then abbreviates deaf people to deafies. He further stipulates that in between are the heafies deafies who look and act like hearies and the hearies who act like deafies or dearies. Oh, I love them, he announces. Want an example? Here are two dearies. (He gestures at two interpreters sitting in the first row.) Glick continues, After this lecture Ill get a piece of paper called an invoice. Its for their hearnings. (Peters,

2000)

In poking fun at the majority (and themselves at times), Deaf Americans utilize another time-honored practice: rhetorically turning upside down the established order. Such a strategy entails stories of invasion and conquest, discourse featuring one or more persons taking over or simply getting the upper hand, and ASL works showing up the majority language and rhetoric. In effect, the status quo is turned topsy-turvy and what was on top lands on the bottom; what was on the bottom alights on top. One well-known example of this is Islay, the Douglas Bullard novel about a small group of Deaf Americans, led by a Federal worker with a dream the mythic dream of a homeland -- venturing into the economically-depressed state of Islay and buying up property and businesses. Other Deaf Americans soon converge on Islay and before long it is the Deaf Americans who are running things. Deaf mothers insist on their Deaf American sons and daughters attending the nearby local, public school rather than the Oral Institute. And, The Man With a Dream runs for governor and wins. Another example of inversion is Stephen Ryans Planet Way Over Yonder an ASL narrative about a young Deaf American boy who rockets off to a planet where the majority of inhabitants are deaf and a small minority is hearing. A third instance is the Side Show segment of the 1971-72 NTD theatrical production, My Third Eye. In this production can be seen a red-and-white-striped tent in the background and in the foreground a large enclosure akin to an old-fashioned birdcage with two voice readers inside. The ringmaster strides out on stage and promises to tell about strange things.a strange people. At her behest, the acrobats go through their acts while the voice readers stand, virtually motionless. As the acrobats perform, the ringmaster extols the interaction, expressiveness, and freedom of ASL, which utilizes the face and the whole body. Implicitly and

explicitly, she dismisses the poker faces, small mouth movements, and limp appendages of the voice readers (representing mainstream society). In effect, Deaf American culture is depicted as fluid and free a little three-ring circus within an aural majority culture shown to be sadly limited, inflexible, and authoritarian. (Peters, 2000) Western civilization often has the scientific and scholarly urge in the Cartesian vein -- to categorize, classify, and differentiate. This is reflected in literary studies by the analysis and dissection of Western literature in the attempt to label and define what a particular form of expression is and what it consists of. In effect, questions are asked and re-asked: What genres are there? What is a novel? What is a poem? How is a particular work a novel? How did the novel evolve? For instance, Cane, the early 20th-century work by Jean Toomer, an African American writer, has a few narratives, a number of poems, and a play all built around a particular theme. Literary scholars have argued -- and continue to argue -- over its classification as a novel. Another example is Borderlands, a Hispanic novel by Gloria Anzaluda, which mixes up fiction and nonfiction and plays English off of Spanish and vice versa. And, modern-day scholars are similarly intrigued by the Native American novel, Ceremony with its cyclical rather than conventional linear progression. These and other minority writers choose not to heed genre distinctions; in other words, they break the rules when it comes to what is expected of a particular genre, turning upside down Western expectations of narrative, poetry, and drama. Conventionally, a story is narrative that progresses forward from beginning, to middle, to end. Events that occur generally have a cause-and-effect logic. Bill Ennis Nitty ASL narrative, however, defies these general expectations: My favorite..cat. I had a cat, this big. Bigger? This big. It was a tomcat and its name was Nitty. It was born in the country: Staunton, Virginia. Gallaudet people brought

it and gave it to us. Why call it Nitty. Why not K? Right. Cant pronounce K. How did I found out? I wish you told me. The person who told me was the little one, John Mark. John Mark has seven children. True! Six girls and one boy, the last one. Six darlings! The boy is six months old now and called Mark, Jr. From the baby we go all the way up to the oldest girl who is seventeen and in high school. The second oldest girl, is LA or Leigh Ann. Loves her aunt. She goes to her aunt and stays one week. Remember the cat Nitty? Her aunt decides to call it, Here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Im not using my voice. The cat may run here from Staunton, thirty miles away. The girl is fifteen, eleven? Twelve? No, fourteen. She tells her aunt that if she calls the cat this way, it wont come. Uncle Bill always pronounces it Nitty. She caught it somehow(Peters, 2000) Before there was writing, before stories became textualized, there was storytelling. Much storytelling exists in Deaf American culture because sign language has no generally accepted written form. In the Nitty narrative, Ennis goes off the point, adds personal information, and talks to the viewers without heeding the conventions of written narrative. Instead, Ennis adheres to the rules for telling a good story not those for writing a good story. Generally, a written story progresses from beginning to end without unnecessary diversions or personal information, but Ennis is telling a story, employing tactics different from those for writing a story. Indeed, considering the different medium: live storytelling in front of a group, he has to do so in an effort to keep his viewers attention and interest. Since, as Ben Bahan has remarked, The storyteller is the story, who Ennis is, what he has to say, and how he says it, are equally important. (Peters, 2000) Hence, Ennis can include personal information from time to time and dispense with straightforward narrative progression as well as the transitional markers obligatory in written narrative. Many Deaf American nativist or semi-nativist works defy standard genre classification and distinctions. Mary Beth Millers The Cowboy Story in her taped Live at SMI performance, is based upon a slow one-two-three-four drum beat, and it frequently repeats signs and phrases.

the

Boom boom Ride ride Ride ride Handkerchief handkerchief (handkerchief around the neck lifting in breeze) Strings strings (hat strings sway in cowboys face) Hat hat Pistol pistol Gallop gallop Dust dust (dust piles stirred up by horse hoofs) Gallop gallop Rise rise (rider rises off saddle) . (Peters, 2000)

The cowboy arrives in town and stops at a saloon where he espies a pretty saloon girl. They flirt, he wins her over, and the two depart, riding off into the sunset. Often, a scene uses the same handshape in many signs; for example, the V handshape is incorporated into the handkerchief waving, the hat strings lifting, and the riding and the rising off the saddle. The repetition of signs or the repetition of any aspect of a sign its orientation, handshape, or movement visually convey rhyme. The Cowboy Story has elements of poetry and song, yet it is termed a story and progresses narratively from beginning, middle, to end. My Third Eye, staged by the National Theatre of the Deaf, is ostensibly a play. But, conventionally a play has acts: Act One, Act Two, Act Three and so on. Also, it conventionally involves a plot of some kind. Yet, My Third Eye opens with a birthing sequence which is followed by a couple of autobiographical anecdotes. Side Show succeeds after which there is another autobiographical anecdote followed by an ASL tableau. A number of chorus presentations are next in which the NTD members first demonstrate various signs and then dance through Three Blind Mice and The Quick Brown Fox. All in all, this production comes across as more of a musical or variety show than a conventional two- or three-act play. The reason for this may be that it is more appropriately a fairly indigenous Deaf American dramatic production. A characteristically indigenous dramatic production avoids the verbalism and the plodding narrative progression of a

conventional play, instead taking into account, consciously or unconsciously, the visual needs of the Deaf American viewers. To clarify, Deaf American viewers use their eyes and the eye likes visual stimuli variable visual stimuli. It likes moving objects and it likes variety. The eye also needs a break from time to time. Indeed, the traditional Literary Night, which Eye is undoubtedly derived from, is a feast for the eye. A kind of vaudeville production, it is a vehicle for diverse forms, genres, and rhetoric. It first came about when literary societies at schools and clubs for the deaf appropriated English stories and poems and adapted them to ASL and Deaf American viewers visual needs. Not too soon thereafter, ASL stories and skits as well as other nativist or semi-nativist forms started showing up. When a printed English story or poem is adapted to ASL, a dynamic, hybridized form results. As was mentioned, before there was written literature, there was storytelling and drama. It was all people talking, acting, and moving around. The story or dramatic action could not be separated from the teller or performer. The teller or performer was present in person, meaning the body was an integral part of expression. Much of current discourse is in print or via the radio or internet: the body has disappeared. Written discourse can thus be characterized as more abstract, literary, and objective rather than personalized. In other words, literature has evolved from performance into a written body of works. This evolution was facilitated by the rise of Christianity and the middle class because the former de-emphasizes earthly needs and the latter seeks a more decorous, clinical approach. So, whereas in the past the storyteller was the story, the story is now just the story; the body has disappeared. But, when Deaf Americans adapt a printed English work to ASL, they put the body back into it, so to say, and this revitalizes the printed version. In the past, deaf people were apprehensive about signing in public because sign language was not as well accepted as it is now. Now that it has been

recognized as a legitimate language, Deaf Americans (for instance) as a group, as a minority, want to display ASL and in showing and publicizing ASL, they are not shy about showing the body. Deaf people tie sign language their embodied means of communication -- to identity. They sign in public, request interpreters and produce numerous ASL stories and poems for mass distribution. For instance, Ben Bahan and Sam Supalla, two noted storytellers, have produced two ASL narratives on videotape as part of the ASL Literature Series in an effort to show the world that a literature is possible in ASL. This parallels the African American identity-text connection. For a long time African Americans were denied reading and writing instruction. Because of this restriction, they wrote prodigiously upon emancipation to show that they could write and do it as well as whites -- to show that they were human beings. Writing or text was a way to gain recognition, civil rights, and respect. Identity was tied to text. A final, but not insignificant stratagem of Deaf Americans is corollary to body as text. As a part of identity politics, many Deaf American artists do not shy away from more graphic discourse or portrayals. For instance, the Deaf American play, A Deaf Family Diary , includes a scene in which the future in-laws gather for an after-dinner talk. The soon-to-be groom asks how his future fatherin-law is doing after his gall bladder operation, not expecting more than a brief report. But, the brides father describes this operation in such detail that the grooms parents (who can hear) are appalled at his graphicity, yet the Deaf American characters and the viewers find much to appreciate in such ASL dexterity. In effect, due to the inherent graphicity of ASL, the literature can be deliciously indelicate at times. Deaf American artists often take advantage of this characteristic and milk it for all its worth as witness Debbie Rennies European nose-picking narrative at the tail end of her Poetry in Motion videotape, Bill Enniss toilet music account in Bill Ennis: Live at SMI!, and Elinor Krafts cruise banquet description in Elinor Kraft: Live at SMI!.

Such rebelling, such twisting and squirming to evade control, and such jesting, help make Deaf American literature an incredibly rich and multi-faceted body of works. It is a multi-dimensional minority literature that trumpets body as text in the context of identity politics. It is uniquely bicultural, bilingual, bimodal even trimodal. Many national literatures draw upon both oral and literary traditions, but no other literature has a visual-kinetic component that results in a visual literature or visuature. This visuature has properties so far outside what is usually considered linguistic and literary that only analogies with dance, graphic art, cinema, and performance can do it justice. References My Third Eye. Dir. J Ranelli. Written and prod. National Theatre of the Deaf, 197172. A Deaf Family Diary. Scripted Don Bangs, dir. Patrick Graybill, prod. SignRise Cultural Arts, Publick Playhouse, Cheverly, Md., February-March 1994. Bahan, Ben and Sam Supalla. ASL Literature Series. San Diego, California: Dawn Pictures/DawnSignPress, videocassette, 60 min., 1992. Bullard, Douglas. Islay: A Novel. Silver Spring, MD: TJ Publishers, 1986. Glickman, Ken. Deafology 101: Deaf Culture as Seen Through the Eyes of a Deaf Humorist. Silver Spring, MD: Deafinitely Yours Studio, videocassette, 60 min., 1993. Ennis, Bill. Nitty, in Bill Ennis: Live at SMI! Burtonsville, Md., Sign Media, videocassette, 60 min., 1991. Kraft, Elinor. Elinor Kraft: Live at SMI! Burtonsville, Md. Sign Media, videocassette, 60 min., 1993. Miller, Mary Beth. Mary Beth Miller: Live at SMI! Burtonsville, Md. Sign Media, videocassette, 60 min., 1991. Peters, Cynthia. Deaf American Literature: From Carnival to the Canon. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2000. Rennie, Debbie. Poetry in Motion: Original Works in ASL. Burtonsville, Md., Sign Media, videocassette, 60 min., 1990. Ryan, Stephen M. Planet Way Over Yonder, Vol. 5 of ASL Storytime, prod. Department of Communication, Gallaudet University, videocassette, 30 min., 1991.

Deaf Studies VII April 19-21, 2001 Orlando, Florida