‘Sign Literature’ such as Poetry of Deaf People

            Sign literature such as sign language poetry plays an important role among deaf as spoken poetry does for wider community. Sign language poetry creates and expresses the deaf poet’s identity as they view the world. Sign language poetry creates a similar effect despite the different linguistic, national, and cultural backgrounds (Novak 80). The poems utilize neologism and symmetry to celebrate the visual experience of the deaf people. The poetic language empowers both the poet and their audiences to analyze and understand the place they occupy within their national communities.

            Such as in the scholarly article, Wikipedia reiterates the importance of sign language literature though not in an in-depth analytical manner. The deaf community uses the literature such as sign language poetry to share experiences. The resource mostly concentrates on establishing the origins, literacy, features, genres, theatrical performances, and common themes. For example, it highlights how the form of literature has challenged the notion that literacy can only be gained by reading and writing.

            The scholarly article concludes that artistic sign language offers a new realm of comprehending national heritage and history intertwined with that of the deaf community (Esmail 7). Signing strive to understand to comprehend the conditioning of the deaf audiences in responding to poetry. They try to create a connection by utilizing the shared cultural and linguistic experiences of the audience. They also wish to attract hearing audiences to understand the deaf culture by encouraging them to learn sign language. The relationship between the artistic work, the artist, and the targeted audience is intertwined making them inseparable. 

Research Questions

1. What are the signing deaf poets’ intentions and hopes in their performance of their artistic works?
2. Who are the poets targeted audience and how do they perceive and influence the artist’s performances?
3. What challenges do the audiences experience in striving to understand the poems and ways poets can help them overcome those challenges.

 Thesis Statement

            An analysis of the opportunities and challenges signing poets encounter in trying to connect with the hearing audience by encouraging them to learn sign language thereby fostering understanding of deaf culture.

Outline

1. Introduction
2. Much of the research on “sign literature” such as poetry for the deaf concentrates on the poems, the processes, but not the artists and audience of the artistic work.
3. The analysis explores opportunities and challenges to connect with non-traditional audience of sign language poetry to foster understanding of deaf culture.
4. The inseparable relationship between the poem, poet, and target audience
5. Deducing the intentions of the deaf poet and the need to connect with the audience in performance poetry context and interaction with the audiences.
6. The relationship between signed poetry performances and connecting with the audience in live performances
7. Understanding the connection between difficulty in the poetic texts and performances
8. The reader interpretation of text and perceptions of difficulty.
9. Signing poets’ engagement with different audiences and cultural differences to overcome the difficulties.
10. Signing poets’ presentation of “uncomfortable” truths and the modal difficulties they face.
11. Signing poetry’s cultural message and language
12. The deaf audiences’ understanding of the poem’s language and cultural message.
13. Signing poems’ accommodation of hearing audiences to increase the deaf culture legitimacy.
14. Hearing people’s commitment to interpret signing poetry
15. Conclusion
16. Sign language poetry is rich in culture that hearing people can benefit from by learning sign language.
17. Closer community ties by eliminating the barriers that exist through poet and audience relationship management.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Esmail, Jennifer. “The Power of Deaf Poetry: The Exhibition of Literacy and the Nineteenth-Century Sign Language Debates.” Sign Language Studies, vol. 8, no. 4, 2008, pp. 348–368. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26190547. Accessed 2 Oct. 2020.

Novak, Julia. Live Poetry: An Integrated Approach to Poetry in Performance. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 2011. Internet resource.