Stylistic features in American sign language literature

Abstract

American Deaf culture intergenerationally transmits a rich heritage of traditions through American Sign Language (ASL). Deaf culture is clearly an oral—or, more accurately, manual—culture in that ASL does not exist in writing; it is also, however, a "literate" culture in that it is now producing a body of literature that is both single‐authored and preserved in permanent form on videotape. ASL literature is particularly salient to performance studies because, as the product of manual‐visual language, it exists spatially and temporally, through the body and through performance. This essay explores the stylistic features of ASL literature, focusing on how both referential and aesthetic components of bodily expression are wed to create a textual performance.