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Deaf American Literature Deaf American Literature FROM CARNIVAL TO THE CANON Cynthia Peters Gallaudet University Press Washington, D.C. Gallaudet University Press Washington, DC 20002 © 2000 by Gallaudet University. All rights reserved. Published in 2000 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peters, Cynthia. Deaf American literature : from carnival to the canon / by Cynthia Peters p. cm. Based on the author’s thesis, George Washington University, 1996. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-56368-094-7 (alk. paper) 1. American Sign Language. 2. Interpreters for the deaf. I. Title. HV2471 .P38 2000 419—dc21 00-031523 ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences–Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Contents Acknowledgments vii Chapter 1 Is There Really Such a Thing as Deaf American Literature? 1 Chapter 2 Carnival: Orature and Deaf American Literature 17 Chapter 3 Deaf Carnivals as Centers of Culture 32 Chapter 4 The Oral Tradition: Deaf American Storytellers as Tricksters 52 Chapter 5 Literary Night: The Restorative Power of Comedic and Grotesque Literature 78 Chapter 6 Deaf American Theater 96 v vi Contents Chapter 7 Islay: The Deaf American Novel 121 Chapter 8 Poetry 147 Chapter 9 From Orature to Literature: The New Permanence of ASL Literature 173 Chapter 10 Conclusion Index 201 207 Acknowledgments THIS VOLUME is an extensive reworking of my dissertation, “Deaf American Literature: A Carnivalesque Discourse” completed in 1996 at George Washington University. I am most grateful to Lois Bragg for planting the seeds and Dan Moshenberg of GWU for providing invaluable assistance and encouragement. The following people also plowed through preliminary drafts, supplied valuable information, and/or responded to numerous e-mail inquiries: Patrick Graybill, Shirley Shultz-Myers, Clayton Valli, Sam Hawk, Joseph Grigely, Ben Bahan, Donald Bangs, Willy Conley, Bob Daniels, Bernard Bragg, Barbara Kannapell, Mike Kemp, Dirksen Bauman, and Lynn Jacobowitz. At Gallaudet University Press, I wish to thank Ivey Pittle Wallace, Christina Findlay, and Alice Falk for their boundless patience, unwavering support, and great facility with the written word. Finally, I wish to dedicate this volume to Graham Peters— Australian, thespian, husband—and to Stephen Ryan, Jester par excellence. vii Chapter 1 Is There Really Such a Thing as Deaf American Literature? IN HIGH school and college, we learn how to analyze fiction: we chart a work’s plot, ponder its theme or themes, dissect character motivation, and hold a magnifying glass to the author’s use of language, symbolism, and imagery. Having seen to the basics, we then go on to genre considerations and note how our narrative is like or unlike the typical short story or novel. Next, we set our narrative alongside the author’s entire oeuvre to see if it is another chip—or not—off the old block. From there we move to the author’s historical and cultural milieu and compare the author’s writing with that of his or her contemporaries. We bear in mind the general philosophical outlook at the time—rationalism, romanticism, classicism, modernism, or postmodernism—and how our short story or novel figures in the whole cultural matrix. In these days of heightened ethnic and gender awareness and empowerment, we may wish to speculate on the writer’s possible allegianc