Deaf Subjects: Between Identities and Places

by Brenda Jo Brueggemann

Overview

In this probing exploration of what it means to be deaf, Brenda Brueggemann goes beyond any simple notion of identity politics to explore the very nature of identity itself. Looking at a variety of cultural texts, she brings her fascination with borders and between-places to expose and enrich our understanding of how deafness embodies itself in the world, in the visual, and in language.

Taking on the creation of the modern deaf subject, Brueggemann ranges from the intersections of gender and deafness in the work of photographers Mary and Frances Allen at the turn of the last century, to the state of the field of Deaf Studies at the beginning of our new century. She explores the power and potential of American Sign Language—wedged, as she sees it, between letter-bound language and visual ways of learning—and argues for a rhetorical approach and digital future for ASL literature.

The narration of deaf lives through writing becomes a pivot around which to imagine how digital media and documentary can be used to convey deaf life stories. Finally, she expands our notion of diversity within the deaf identity itself, takes on the complex relationship between deaf and hearing people, and offers compelling illustrations of the intertwined, and sometimes knotted, nature of individual and collective identities within Deaf culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814799673
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Series:	Cultural Front , #12
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Brenda Jo Brueggemann is Professor of English and Disability Studies at The Ohio State University where she coordinates the Disability Studies program and serves as a Faculty Leader for the American Sign Language Program. She has authored, edited, or co-edited seven books.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: The Deaf Subject Places Herself 1

1 Between: A Commonplace Book for the Modern Deaf Subject 9

2 American Sign Language and the Academy: The Little Language That Could 25

3 Approaching American Sign Language Literature: Rhetorically and Digitally 38

4 Narrating Deaf Lives: Placing Deaf Autobiography, Biography, and Documentary 72

5 Deaf Eyes: The Allen Sisters' Pictorial Photography, 1885-1920 98

6 Posting Mabel 117

7 Economics, Euthanasia, Eugenics: Rhetorical Commonplaces of Disability in the Nazi T-4 Program 141

Notes 163

Works Cited 179

Index 191

About the Author 203

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

These essays testify to the wonderful honesty that this author brings to all her work. I suspect it has to do, too, with the fact that Brueggemann does not shy away from asking the hard questions." "This collection, which Brueggemann sets forth as a commonplace book, is that and much more. Her work-readable, insightful, poignant, and smart-has done much to teach us all. Like Burke setting out his "Grammar" and "Rhetoric," she has given us with this text and her body of work a new understanding of the language of the 'people of the eye'."-Rhetoric Review,

"At times serious, funny, irreverent, and always thoughtful, this is the most challenging book yet written about deafness—challenging in making us think better and in breaking new ground. Clearly a must-read."
-Lennard Davis,author of Obsession: A History

"Both rhetoric and disability studies are enhanced by Brueggemann's juxtapositions in Deaf Subjects by, for instance, using rhetorical theory to illuminate the performative dimensions of American Sign Language and the Nazi T-4 project. Fascinating and essential reading for students and scholars in both fields."
-Anne Ruggles Gere,University of Michigan

Brueggemann brings impressive credentials to this project. . .providing an interesting discussion of the irony that deaf children are being mainstreamed and kept away from ASL< hearing college students are “flocking to ASL classes”. Go figure.”
-CHOICE

Editorial Reviews

"At times serious, funny, irreverent, and always thoughtful, this is the most challenging book yet written about deafness challenging in making us think better and in breaking new ground. Clearly a must-read."

author of Obsession: A History Lennard Davis

"Both rhetoric and disability studies are enhanced by Brueggemanns juxtapositions in Deaf Subjects by, for instance, using rhetorical theory to illuminate the performative dimensions of American Sign Language and the Nazi T-4 project. Fascinating and essential reading for students and scholars in both fields."

University of Michigan Anne Ruggles Gere

"Both rhetoric and disability studies are enhanced by Brueggemanns juxtapositions in Deaf Subjects by, for instance, using rhetorical theory to illuminate the performative dimensions of American Sign Language and the Nazi T-4 project. Fascinating and essential reading for students and scholars in both fields."

Anne Ruggles Gere

"At times serious, funny, irreverent, and always thoughtful, this is the most challenging book yet written about deafnesschallenging in making us think better and in breaking new ground. Clearly a must-read."

Lennard Davis

"Both rhetoric and disability studies are enhanced by Brueggemann’s juxtapositions in Deaf Subjects by, for instance, using rhetorical theory to illuminate the performative dimensions of American Sign Language and the Nazi T-4 project. Fascinating and essential reading for students and scholars in both fields."

-Anne Ruggles Gere,University of Michigan

"At times serious, funny, irreverent, and always thoughtful, this is the most challenging book yet written about deafness—challenging in making us think better and in breaking new ground. Clearly a must-read."
-Lennard Davis,author of Obsession: A History

From the Publisher