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 __ (Continue on the next page) 2 Fall 2019 – Issue 15