Endnote
A Feast for the Eyes: ASL Literacy and ASL Literature
Karen Christie
Dorothy M. Wilkins
National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Rochester Institute of Technology
All languages and cultures have literatures through
which they pass down stories and transmit the experience and values of a group of people. In the late 1960s,
linguistic analysis of American Sign Language (ASL)
documented that the language of Deaf Americans was
bona fide. By the 1980s, cultural descriptions of the
DEAF-WORLD1 began to appear in publications. In
more recent times, the literature of ASL has been recognized and celebrated. Perhaps one of the more formal celebrations of ASL literature has been the 1991
and 1996 National American Sign Language Literature Conferences at Rochester, New York.
With the recognition of ASL literature, literary and
linguistic analyses of the emerging canon have arisen as
academic fields of study (e.g., see Bauman, 1996;
Krentz, 1996; Neumann, 1995; Ormsby, 1995; Peters,
1995; Rose, 1992; Rutherford, 1993; Valli, 1994; Wilcox & Sweetser, 1996, among others). In addition, justification for the inclusion of ASL as a language for foreign language credit at secondary and postsecondary
institutions has required recognition of ASL literature
(Frishburg, 1988). But what does it mean to be literate
in a signed language? What is ASL literature?
Correspondence should be sent to Karen Christie, National Technical
Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, 52 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623 (e-mail: [email protected]).
Copyright © 1997 Oxford University Press. CCC 1081-4159
ASL Literacy
What does it mean to become literate in ASL? While,
in truth, most members of the DEAF-WORLD become biliterate or multiliterate, literacy in ASL has often developed outside of the classroom in informal residential school settings, Deaf families, and other
DEAF-WORLD contexts. Yet, increasing numbers of
educators and researchers have begun to explore the
use of ASL literature formally in school and in children's theater programs (e.g., see Bryne, 1996; Smith,
Seago, Steiner, & Cole, 1996; Supalla, Fraychineaud,
Wix, & Singleton, 1996).
Although there is a growing awareness that literacy
is not equivalent to reading and writing skills (Cummins, 1994; Kuntze & Bosso, 1994), it has become apparent that we need a clearer explanation of ASL literacy. Wilcox (1987) has taken an interactionist approach
to the understanding of literacy in the Deaf community. We wish to focus here on ASL literacy and three
distinct components of literacy: functional, cultural
and critical literacies (McLaren, 1988; Williams &
Snipper, 1990). Functional literacy involves basic language skills that enable a person to use ASL to communicate effectively in the DEAF-WORLD. Cultural literacy refers to the values, heritage, and shared
experiences necessary to understand and interpret the
relationships of ASL literary works to our lives as Deaf
people. Critical literacy relates to the use of literature
as a means of empowerment and an ideological aware-
58 Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2:1 Winter 1997
ness of the DEAF-WORLD in relation to other
worlds. Cummins (1994) and Baker (1993) have made
it clear that educational programs involving linguistic
minority group members that focus only on the development of functional literacy skills in the minority language do so at the expense of cultural and critical literacy, and that the result is disempowerment and limited
educational success.
ASL Literature
Like most languages without a written form, ASL has a
literature that has been passed down and shared within
generations in a face-to-face manner.2And like most
languages having a rich "oral" literary tradition, the
storytellers/poets of ASL have a respected and leading
role in the nurturing and growth of ASL literature.
One such storyteller/poet is Peter Cook, an innovative
performer/educator. In his presentation at the recent
1996 ASL Literature Conference, Cook described the
parameters of ASL literature by using an extended
metaphor—a soup recipe.
According to Cook, the basic" ingredients of ASL
literature include not only the building blocks and
grammar of ASL, but also miming and gestures that
exploit the visual medium. Thus, in much the same
way that the poetry of nonsigned languages use sound
play and rhyme, ASL poetry uses visual play and sign
rhymes. These basic ingredients need to simmer for a
long time, as these features contribute a strong foundation for the literature. Simmering, practicing, tasting,
and internalizing, the chef/artist can now create and
innovate. Sample vegetables are chosen, a group of
ideas to make up the flavor of a soup. Cook represents
the techniques of ASL literary artists with spices, symbolizing the genres or forms for creating a visual literature—for example, alphabet or number stories, multipeople poems, manipulation of the speed of repeated
movement patterns, or blending of the links between
individual signs (transformations). The chef's/artist's
selection of spices distinguishes the taste of unique
works. Because the study of ASL literature is relatively
young, Cook emphasizes the multitudes of undiscovered spices in the world—techniques to be borrowed
from other art mediums and cultures. Important in this
extended metaphor is the concept of sharing, particu-
larly with young Deaf people who have a hunger for
ASL literature, along with the fact that ASL literature
is able to nourish new generations of artists.
The work of one student-poet from Rochester
School for the Deaf, DeLee Windsor, illustrates the
hunger for literature. This poem opens in a forest of
trees. DeLee describes the trees being chopped down
one by one. One tree, however, refuses to yield to the
lumberjack's blade, only to be left alone in a forest of
tree stumps. As time passed and new trees began to
sprout, the old tree told them stories of their ancestors
to encourage their growth (Durr, 1996).
This student clearly exhibited much beyond basic
functional literarcy skills in ASL. Though not demonstrated here, DeLee not only signed comprehensibly,
but also spiced his signs in unique and artistic ways. In
terms of cultural literacy, the poem clearly illustrates
the experience of isolation, the value of community
roots to the DEAF-WORLD, and the responsibility
felt toward future generations of Deaf children. In
terms of critical literacy, there is insight into the experience of oppression and into the power of ASL literature to maintain and regenerate the DEAF-WORLD.
Through performance of the poem, the student is empowered. Here is a literate young chef experimenting
in the creation of ASL literature to feed the minds of a
new generation.
DeLee Windsor's poem is one example of how
ASL literature is used for collective remembering and
language maintenance (Padden, 1990). Being literate
allows one access to and participation in the literary
heritage of the DEAF-WORLD. Thus, educational
programs need to be concerned with the development
of functional, cultural, and critical literacies as well as
with stimulating students' natural hunger for literature. What is ASL literature? A hearty feast of soups
set in front of hungry eyes.
Notes
1. We use DEAF-WORLD here in the same manner as
Lane, Hoffmeister, and Bahan (1996) to describe the way in
which minority language group members who use ASL refer to
themselves, by following the convention of using English glosses
(approximate translations of ASL sign equivalents) in capital
letters.
2. With the advent and ease of videotaped technology, ASL
literary works are becoming more widely available. The work of
A Feast for the Eyes
Purves (1995) suggests that becoming familiar with videotechnology may become an important skill for literacy, and Lentz
(1996) has demonstrated experimentation with how ASL poetry
is presented via videotape.
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