Narrative, Identity, and Theory in Deaf Studies

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Narrative, Identity, and TheoryinDeaf Studies

• Ben Bahan
• H-Dirksen Bauman
• Department of ASL Deaf Studies
• September 14, 2005

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Goals

• To gain a greater understanding of d/Deaf lives
• To explore the relationships between critical
  theory, cultural studies and Deaf studies
• Expand the parameters of Deaf Studies

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Exploring Theoretical Lenses

• Deaf Studies Think Tank. July 5-7, 2002
• Sponsored by National Endowment for the
  Humanities Focus Grant 2002

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Deaf Studies Think Tank Topics Covered

• Ethnic Studies
• Critical Gender Studies
• Disability Studies
• Literature, Rhetoric and Art
• Place and Borderlands
• Literacy and Pedagogy

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Participants

• Ben Bahan
• Dirksen Bauman
• Doug Baynton
• Frank Bechter
• MJ Bienvenu
• Lennard Davis
• Lindsay Dunn
• Jane Fernandes
• Larry Fleischer
• Genie Gertz

• Bob Hoffmeister
• Tom Humphries
• Arlene B. Kelly
• Marlon Kuntze
• Paddy Ladd
• Harlan Lane
• Carolyn McCaskill
• Joseph Murray
• Carol Padden

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Sightings Explorations in Deaf Studies

• Edited by H-Dirksen L. Bauman, University of
  Minnesota Press, forthcoming.

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Deaf Lives Under Construction . . . .
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Weaving Together Narrative, Identity and Theory

• We construct our identity at the same time as we
  tell our life-story (15)
• -Madan Sarup

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Methodology

• Life Story Interviews
• Indexing
• Work in progress

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Informant Demographics

• 22 Life Story Interviewees to date
• Hearing status
• 72 deaf
• 14 hard of hearing
• 14 deafened in early childhood

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Informant Demographics

• Gender
• 54 male
• 46 female
• Nationality
• 77 US born
• 23 foreign born

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Informant Demographics

• Race/Ethnicity
• 68 Caucasian
• 14 African or African American
• 4.5 Native American
• 4.5 Asian
• 4.5 Latina
• 4.5 Middle Eastern

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Informant Demographics

• Informants who have attended one or more of the
  following
• 63.5 residential school
• 36.4 mainstream school
• 50 oral school/program
• 22.7 day school
• 9 non-traditional schooling

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Informant Demographics

• Post-Secondary Educational Background
• 68 graduated from college
• 23 no college
• 9 some college

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Informant Demographics

• Family background
• 73 hearing family
• 27 deaf family
• Parents Communication Method
• 55 parents do not sign
• 27 parents sign
• 18 parents sign some (i.e. fingerspell and basic
  sign)

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Weaving Together Narrative, Identity and Theory

• Postmodern Deaf Identity Politics
• Identities as stable and fixed or dynamic and
  evolving?
• Essentialized Deaf Identity?

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Deaf Is

• Narrator/Self
• Autobiographical I
• Ideological I

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Recurring Pattern

• Construction
• Deconstruction
• Reconstruction

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Constructing Deaf Lives

• Herded by Ideological Sheep Dogs
• Foundational Stories
• Building the I
• Mislabeled
• Attempted cures through medicine religion
• Speech is more important than hearing because
  nobody listens anyway.
• Analysis Being unhomed (Homi Bhaba)

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Deconstructing Deaf Lives

• Transitional Stories
• The I becomes S
• Realization of ideological control
• Journey toward a Deaf Space
• Following Visual Ways of Being
• Wake Up
• Find myself

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Reconstructing Deaf Lives

• S blends with other Is
• Passing on to the next generation
• Deeper involvement with education / activism
• From being unhomed to being at home in the
  world

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Patterns and Themes

• Deaf identities, like all identities are not
  fixed and permanent, but dynamic and evolving
• Issues of finding other identities
• Power of communication ideologies on deaf lives
  (ideology of communication vs. need for
  communication)
• Deaf lives v. Deaf Culture Rhetoric
• Survivorship

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Constructing Deaf Theory

• Above all Deaf lives magnify.
• The Human Will to Communicate

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Future Directions

• Never ending stories
• New identities, new challenges from biomedical
  advances
• Shifting communication technologies and
  ideologies.

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Thanks

• Gallaudet Research Institute
• National Endowment for the Humanities Focus Grant
• On-going study, Deaf Studies MA program