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
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Spring 2020 – Issue 17