SASL Newsletter - Spring 2020 Issue Issue 17 - Spring 2020 | 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 Simile The topic of simile is fourth and last in my editorial series on the literary devices in the narratives and poems of ASL. People use similes in everything from their daily conversations and public speaking to drama and literature. Similes are, simply put, ubiquitous. Some similes have become so common that they have become part of our everyday discourse. A few such examples are “I am mad as hell!”, “He is as busy as a bee”, and “You are sweating like a pig.” Similes can be used to convey meaning quickly and effectively or to intentionally make works of literature more vivid and impactful. An example of simile in an English literary work by Vladimir Nabokov (2004) is “Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me like towers of Pisa” (p. 10). This example produces a humorous effect and creates a vivid mental image of the comparison between old ladies leaning on walking sticks and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Similar to the literary devices of hyperboles, caricatures, and foreshadowing (that I unpacked in the previous three issues), similes in American Sign Language (ASL) literature are not well understood. Phyllis Wilcox, who wrote the book entitled Metaphor in American Sign Language (2000), claimed that Clayton Valli’s original poem called “Lone Sturdy Tree” may be an example of simile, however this is not settled. Simile is reportedly in use in British Sign Language literature (Sutton-Spence & Kaneko, 2016). In this editorial, I will discuss similes in more detail. I will rely on two video examples in ASL to demonstrate how Ben Bahan and Mary Beth Miller, both well-known ASL storytellers in the United States, effectively use similes in their narratives. The respective narratives are “Bird of a Different Feather” in Sam Supalla and Ben Bahan’s DVD called ASL Literature Series: Bird of a Different Feather & For a Decent Living (1994) and “Grandpa’s Radio” in Miller’s DVD called Live at SMI!: Mary Beth Miller (2010). Defining the term “simile” is difficult due to the ever-so- slight difference between similes and metaphors. Some ______ (Continue on the next page) 2 Spring 2020 – Issue 17