HMS-305A New Wave Deafness in the Arts

3 Credits

From an outsider perspective, the non-Deaf community tends to define deafness by the absence of hearing. Broadening our view to include how members of the Deaf community view their experiences, we will familiarize ourselves with disability theory in order to enter a discourse about what role our societal perspectives play in negotiating the line between disability and culture. Based on our understanding of the subjective nature of disability and considering deafness as a culture having departed from disabled origins, we will explore the ways in which Deaf artists, writers, filmmakers, comedians and architects have contributed to mainstream culture and the role their cultural identity plays in their works. We will read academic texts on disability theory, explorative works on deafness, first hand accounts of the Deaf experience as well as observe the cross-genre intertextuality of Deaf expression.