SASL Newsletter - Fall 2019 Issue Issue 15 - Fall 2019 | Page 2
SASL Executive Board
2019 – 2022
President
Samuel J. Supalla
University of Arizona
[email protected]
Vice President
(vacant)
Recording Secretary /
Newsletter Editor
Andrew P. J. Byrne
University at Buffalo
[email protected]
Treasurer
Harvey Nathanson
Austin Community College
[email protected]
SASL Journal
Editor-in-Chief
Jody H. Cripps
Clemson University
[email protected]
Board Directors
Karen Alkoby
Gallaudet University
[email protected]
Gabriel Arellano
Georgetown University
[email protected]
Ron Fenicle
Montgomery College
[email protected]
Russell Rosen
CUNY – Staten Island
[email protected]
The Power of ASL
By Andrew P. J. Byrne
Unpacking the Literary Device of
Caricature
While considering which literary device to write about
for this editorial, caricature came to mind. Similar to hyperbole
that I unpacked in the previous issue, the discussion and
research of caricature is virtually non-existent, with the
exception of a PowerPoint presentation by Linda Wall and
Shelley Potma in 2010 in Ontario, Canada and a book entitled
Introducing Sign Language Literature: Folklore & Creativity by
Rachel Sutton-Spence and Michiko Kaneko (2016). Wall and
Potma appear to be the first to raise the topic of caricature
used in a literary work. For this editorial, I will define caricature
and provide two video examples to demonstrate how
caricature is effectively used in the narratives by Mary Beth
Miller and Sam Supalla, two well-known ASL storytellers in
the United States. The respective narratives are New York,
New York in her DVD called Live at SMI!: Mary Beth Miller
(1991/2010), and For a Decent Living in the DVD called ASL
Literature Series: Bird of a Different Feather & For a Decent
Living (1994). This will be the second in the series for the
newsletter on the analysis of literary devices used in the
narratives and poems of ASL.
The word caricature comes from the Italian words
carico and caricare, meaning to load or charge. The French
word for carico is chargé, which means to load or exaggerate.
“[T]he major aesthetic principle of modern caricature [is]
exaggeration” (McLees, 1989, p. 2). What exactly is
caricature? It “ridicules a person by exaggerating and
distorting his most prominent features and characteristics.
Quite often the caricature evokes genial rather than derisive
laughter” (Cuddon, 2013, p. 103). Humor is a necessary
condition for caricature (Perkins, 1975). Most people perceive
caricature as a drawing of a real individual with exaggerated
physical features and characteristics. It is actually more than
that. “Caricature…is valid in more than portraiture. [It] is as
appropriate in prose and poetry as in art. The technique of
exaggeration with intent to convey meaning provides the
criterion for classifying a [literary] work as caricature”
(McLees, 1989, pp. 4-5). McLees’ quote clearly indicates that
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Fall 2019 – Issue 15