Vindication for ASL Literature
Supalla
aesthetically accessible for me and helped to facilitate the rise of ASL literature starting in the
1980s. Deaf people now have a firmly established literary dimension to their language (see Byrne,
2017 for a validation of ASL literature in terms of genres and quality).
I became uneasy when I opened Bauman's book for the first time. Bauman and two other
editors wrote an introduction to the book. Although the book has ASL literature by name in its
title, the introduction's content is different. The literary accomplishments of deaf people are termed
'sign literature'. Sign literature suggests a removal of recognition for ASL as deaf people's
language. There is no use of 'language' for ASL literature either (see Meier, 2002 for comments
about similar stereotypical thinking among scholars of the past). The mismatch between the
introduction's content and the book's title suggests the authors' intention to attract readers and then
'redirect' them to the Deaf First ideology.
I will close with a query on why the Deaf First ideology prevails in spite of what has been
demonstrated through research and for modern society's increasing awareness of ASL as a full-
fledged human language and ASL literature. Part of the problem can be attributed to a lack of
recognition for the competing ideologies within ASL/Deaf Studies as a field. Hopefully, this may
change with the publication of this and other commentaries (see also Edwards & Harold, 2014 for
similar concerns over the preoccupation with deafness as a concept among some Deaf/ASL Studies
scholars).
Regarding ASL literature, I want to thank (now deceased) Clayton Valli, not only for his
body of ASL literary works, but for his promotion of a sensitive and socially appropriate form of
ideology as it relates to ASL First via research and scholarship. I must add that the work of Ormsby
(1995) serves as a good example of the ASL First orientation when covering Valli's poem,
"Snowflake". The concept of lines is embraced regardless of the differences in language modalities
(signed vs. spoken) and Ormsby made some important contributions to ASL poetry.
Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Andrew Byrne for his input and feedback on earlier drafts of
this manuscript.
References
Bahan, B., & Supalla, S. (1995). Line segmentation and narrative structure: A study of eye gaze
behavior in American Sign Language. In K. Emmorey & J. Reilly (Eds.), Sign, gesture
and space (pp. 171-191). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bauman, H-D. L. (2006). Getting out of line: Toward a visual and cinematic poetics of ASL. In
H-D. L. Bauman, J. L. Nelson, & H. M. Rose (Eds.), Signing the body poetics: Essays on
American Sign Language literature (pp. 95-117). Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press.
Bauman, H-D. L, Nelson, J. L., & Rose, H. M. (2006). Introduction. In H-D. L. Bauman, J. L.
Nelson, & H. M. Rose (Eds.), Signing the body poetics: Essays on American Sign
Language literature (pp. 1-18). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
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