Sign Language Literature

Language and literature cannot survive without each other. They are closely intertwined for linguistic and cultural survival, maintenance, and vitality. Language is the medium of literature while literature is the most sophisticated demonstration of language. Literature is [Page 833]fundamental for our existence because it reflects our existence in it.

Every signed language in the world has a literature of its own. The members of a signed language community pass on their language, values, tradition, and wisdom from generation to generation “orally” or “through space” (used by Ben Bahan). Their literature provides a vital basis for developing literacy skills.

Using American Sign Language (ASL) literature as an example, before the advent of video technology to record literary works in ASL, ASL culture was considered “oral” because it was based on live, face-to-face communication. All works were community-owned. Frequently, these poems and narratives were signed at residential schools in the dorms and in the classrooms, in first-language ASL (Deaf) clubs where Deaf people used to congregate, at Deaf banquets, and in Deaf homes. The works were told to entertain and instruct the young generation and to pass on the precious ASL culture.

The introduction of video technology has led to the creation of single-authored works in ASL. While video technology is used to preserve ASL literature for posterity, it represents a frozen form that differs from ASL literature composed in pre-videotape times. For instance, in pre-videotape times, a work could be changed as it passed from storyteller to storyteller. The main idea might remain, but the storyteller could add a segment or delete a segment or expand an idea or de-emphasize an idea. The power remained in the hands of the live storyteller. In contrast, when the work is “frozen” in videotape, then these changes do not occur, and the work remains the same in the eyes of the audience. When the work is videotaped, it will still be considered “oral.”

ASL literature exists in two dimensions: live and on video. It has broad categories and specialized subcategories of composition, which are also known as genres and subgenres. Based on the VHS and DVD publications of original literary works numbering over 400, it has three main genres with 12 subgenres, 10 sub-subgenres, and 5 sub-sub-subgenres (see Figure 1).