Books

The Deaf community’s unique relationship with language is, of course, irreducible to a single medium. The central role that books have played for the community is a mere glance at that nuanced and multi-faceted relationship.

Books considered seminal to the community have covered a broad range of subjects, such as the education of the Deaf, the linguistic codification of sign language, cultural, historical, and personal narratives. From the earliest accounts, we know of the community’s close relationship with the press and its members have historically occupied many positions, from bookbinding to editorship. More importantly, of course, is the role of the written text as a common ground. It functions as a mediator between the Deaf community and society at large insofar as it is a means for Deaf people to represent themselves. Numerous books published along the trajectory of this community’s history have made significant impact in Deaf Studies and the community at large. The notion of common ground is nevertheless deceptive, for the ground is anything but leveled. The marginalization of the community-and the role of books in this process—reflects a deeper tension tied to Western discourse about language. This discourse has ideologically equated voice with being. It has granted voice an epistemological privilege; voice is the prerequisite for knowledge. The persistent assumption is that rational discourse is a reflection of speech and writing in turn is merely its counterpart. Thus the voice of the deaf remains at the margins.

A significant turning point concerning the relationship between books and deaf people is in [Page 88]1779, when Pierre Desloges, a bookbinder by profession, was the first Deaf person to publish authored Observations d’un sourd et muèt, sur un cours elémentaire d’education des sourds et muèts (Observations of a Deaf and Mute, on an Elementary Education Over the Deaf and Dumb). This book serves as a rebuttal against Abbé Deschamps’ argument, which supported oralism. It is in this book that proclaimed that the Langue des Signes Française (LSF) stemmed from interaction between the Deaf community rather than by l’Épée. Importantly, much of the debate over the appropriate educational philosophies for the deaf occurred through writing. Given the historical context, letters were often exchanged between leaders involved in Deaf education to defend their own or dismiss their contemporaries’ leaving deaf people voiceless. Desloges is significant in this regard insofar as his writing addressed the importance of signing within the Parisian Deaf community at the time. This text marks a point in history where deaf people gained ground in representing themselves, in etching out a space from the margins from which they could speak to society at large. The engagement in written discourse ultimately paved the way for the empowerment of the Deaf community vis-a-vis the utilization of sign language as a new form of textuality, shifting the discourse of what it means to write. With the advent of cinematic media in the early 20th century, through projects such as the National Association of the Deaf’s Preservation of the Sign Language, Deaf voices emerged in ways that had never been seen before. This fourteen-minute film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2010.

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