ASL Literature
Byrne
to love and cherish the story. The fact that the deaf person was driving in the story serves as a
reminder to deaf people that the right to drive was a hard-fought victory according to the historical
accounts.
In comparison to the narratives in the ASL Literature Series, The Hitchhiker is older with
its origins tracing back at least to the time when automobiles were first introduced in the United
States and Canada. Carol Padden and Tom Humphries (1988) who are deaf scholars reported on a
folktale that has been passed down over hundreds of years in France. The French deaf community
shared with them a story of how a hearing priest, the Abbé de l’Epée was ‘lost in the world’ until
the time he encountered two deaf girls. This incident is what led to the founding of the world’s
first public school for the deaf, and the girls’ signing went on to become what is now known as
French Sign Language. The impact as told in the story is not limited to France as its model of deaf
education was duplicated in the United States and Canada leading to the rise of ASL. The
significance of the French story is best presented by Padden and Humphries as follows:
We finally realized that the story is not about the Abbé de l’Epée. Instead it has
come to symbolize, in its retelling through the centuries, the transition from a world
in which deaf people live alone or in small isolated communities to a world in which
they have a rich community and language. This is not merely a historical tale, but
also a folktale about the origin of a people and their language. Epée’s movement
from the darkness of the night into the light and warmth of the house of the deaf
girls is entirely appropriate as a central image in a folktale of origins, not at all
unlike folktales of other cultures. (p. 29)
With the recent rise of single-authored works in ASL, one cannot help but wonder about
this occurrence in light of the folklore tradition in the deaf community. One possible explanation
lies in the deaf community’s response to a change in society where ASL instruction started
becoming a fixture in academia. This is where financial opportunities become real with thousands
of hearing students taking ASL courses each year. Thus, deaf individuals who had a high level of
literary skills made the decision to videotape themselves and market their work. Bahan and S.
Supalla are good examples, but it is important to note that they continue to do live performances
to this day. Hearing individuals who are signers and talented performers jumped in as well. One
example is the video production that came out Tomorrow Dad Will Still Be Deaf and Other Stories
by Bonnie Kraft (1997), who was born to deaf parents, has native signing skills and a strong
affiliation with deaf culture.
The impact of video technology must also be noted, for it allows performers to view
themselves on the videotape to make changes or improvements until the ‘final version’ has been
created (Rose, 1994). Single-authored works in ASL are oral and require memorization just like
folklore in the deaf community but may have slight variances from performance to performance,
but any work that is videotaped is preserved for posterity. A narrative in the folklore tradition can
be changed as it passed from one individual to another. The main idea might remain the same, but
any individual can add or delete a segment or expand or de-emphasize an idea. In contrast, once a
narrative is recorded on videotape, changes do not occur and the narrative remains the same in the
eyes of the audience. The individual who performs professionally is more focused on form or the
structure of the work, rather than only on the content matter.
This is where the delivery of Bird of a Different Feather and For a Decent Living becomes
important as the performers had their distinctive and eloquent styles at play. The same appears to
SASLJ, Vol. 1, No. 1 – Fall/Winter 2017
62