The category of single-authored works has three main genres: poetry, drama, and prose. The
total number of works is 448. Of these works, 81 are works of poetry, 19 are works of drama, and 348
works of prose. While poetry has two sub-genres: rhymes and epics, drama has three: comedy,
historical, and monologue. Prose is divided into seven sub-genres: narratives of personal experience,
science fiction, fiction, non-fiction, humor, allegories, and riddles. The first sub-genre has 248 works,
which is more than all other sub-genres combined. “Narratives of personal experience are central to the
storytelling of many deaf communities, and deaf people tell them so that other deaf people may learn
from the life experience of ‘someone like me’” (Sutton-Spence & Kaneko, 2016, p. 45).
One may wonder why works translated from English and English-influenced rhymes (e.g., ABC
stories) are not included in the database. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, not every work could
be completely and accurately translated due to linguistic and cultural differences and complexities such
as multi-levels of meaning and culturally specific allusion. Lastly, the language of origin is English, not
ASL. Heather Gibson who leads the ASL curriculum team at the Ontario provincial schools for the deaf
in Canada made this succinct observation:
[L]iterary works are intimately tied to the culture from which they spring and have their deepest
meaning and strongest impact when the storyteller and audience share a common cultural
ground. Previously, poetry, songs and stories were translated from English to ASL. Deaf
Cinderella is a classic example. This translated curriculum never fully resonated with [ASL-using
deaf] children because it came from an experience foreign to them. It would be like an
anglophone learning English only through translations of French literature. (Miller, 2008, n.p.)
In sum, the database by itself legitimizes the entire body of ASL literary works. I believe that we
now have established boundaries for maintaining the quality of ASL literature, at least preliminarily.
SASL is assuming a stewardship role for the language of deaf people. As deaf people who sign
comprise a very small minority in the American and Canadian populations, their literary representation
to the world must be valued.
References
Byrne, A. P. J. (2017). American Sign Language literature: Some considerations for legitimacy and quality issues. SASL Journal, 1(1), 56-77.
Miller, L. (2008, September). Exemplary teacher: Principal Heather Gibson: Taking pride and making strides in ASL culture and curriculum. Professionally
Speaking: The Magazine of the Ontario College of Teachers. Retrieved from http://professionallyspeaking.oct.ca/september_2008/exemplary.asp
Sutton-Spence, R., & Kaneko, M. (2016). Introducing sign language literature: Folklore and creativity. London, UK: Palgrave.
The Power of ASL
3
Winter 2017 – Issue 8