SASL Newsletter - Spring 2019 Issue Issue 13 - Spring 2019 | Page 3

in the early twentieth century, they were literary theorists. Jakobson published a book chapter entitled
Modern Russian Poetry: Velimir Khlebnikov in 1921. It was translated from Russian to English by
Edward J. Brown in 1973. To understand the essential concept of literature, “the subject of literary
scholarship is not literature but literariness (literaturnost), that is, that which makes of a given work a
work of literature” (Jakobson, 1973, p. 62). The essence of literariness is defamiliarization. Jakobson
came up with the term literariness while Shklovsky coined the concept of defamiliarization (Mambrol,
2016). What exactly is defamiliarization? “The primary aim of literature…is to estrange or
defamiliarize…by disrupting the modes of ordinary linguistic discourse” (Abrams & Harpham, 2015, p.
142). Defamiliarization is made possible through the use of literary devices such as imagery, rhyme,
rhythm, and narrative techniques (Eagleton, 2008). In other words, when selected devices are used in
a literary work, “ordinary [everyday] language is intensified, condensed, twisted, telescoped, drawn
out, [and] turned on its head. It is language ‘made strange’; and because of this estrangement, the
everyday world is also suddenly made unfamiliar” (Eagleton, 2008, p. 3). Defamiliarization is intended
to deliberately draw and hold our attention, evoke our emotions, and prolong [deciphering] time (Miall
& Kuiken, 1994; Mitchell, 2016).
At this point in the discussion, it is necessary to focus on one well-known work of ASL
literature, Bird of a Different Feather as performed by Ben Bahan from the ASL Literature Series. I will
point out how Bahan succeeded in the area of defamiliarization; thus, his work can be counted as
ASL literature. I also took the liberty to compare Bahan's work with Bernard Bragg's 1994
performance called The Eagle and the Squirrel. I would like to note that Bragg's place in ASL
literature with The Eagle and the Squirrel has not been critically examined until now. Bragg's place in
the Deaf World may be highly esteemed as a performer, but his place in ASL literature remains an
open question.
Some critical differences between Bahan's work and Bragg's work is based on one segment
from each of their performances. By coincidence, Bahan and Bragg selected an eagle as a character
in each story. Both depict an eagle flying up in the sky, taking notice of a target on the ground,
preparing to dive towards the target with its legs straightened out and claws open, grabbing hold of it,
and carrying it off. Based on the works of Jakobson and Shklovsky, Bahan effectively defamiliarizes
his work by using certain literary devices such as point of view (an omniscient author/signer),
personification (taking roles of an eagle teacher and a bird throughout the video clip), caricature (arms
depicting wings folded with head exaggeratedly cocked to the side), simile (diving through the air
quickly, head first – similar to a rocket), imagery (taking the role of the eagle teacher diving through
the air swiftly and morphing into a rocket), mood (comical), and tone (critical, praiseful, serious).
Below is Bahan’s video to give readers an idea of how he uses the ASL literary language and
defamiliarization in his narrative (reproduced with permission from DawnSignPress):
(Continue on the next page)
The Power of ASL
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Spring 2019 – Issue 13