Moving beyond words in Scotland's corp-oral traditions : British Sign Language storytelling meets the 'deaf public voice'
Scotlandâs oral traditions have received scholarly attention since the 18th Century; however, collection and analysis has exclusively focused on those passed on âby word of mouth,â and the traditional arts of Scotlandâs deaf communities have been overlooked. This thesis begins to address this oversight by examining storytelling practices passed on âby sign of handâ in British Sign Language (BSL). Neither fully acculturated to majority society nor âforeigners in their own countryâ (Murray 2008:102), signing-deaf people have distinct ways of âdoingâ culture which involve negotiating a bilingual-bicultural continuum between the hearing and deaf worlds. The historical exclusion of signing-deaf culture from conceptualisations of Scotlandâs cultural heritage is increasingly being challenged, both overtly and tacitly, through an emergent âdeaf public voiceâ (Bechter 2008:72); in light of this, I consider three case-studies in which BSL storytelling practices have been placed in the public domain. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews and the in-depth analysis of BSL performance-texts, I examine the ways in which signing-deaf biculturality is expressed and performed, and consider the artistry
Leith, Eleanor Crowther
oral traditions ; storytelling ; deaf culture ; sign language
Moving beyond words in Scotland's corp-oral traditions : British Sign Language storytelling meets the 'deaf public voice'. Scotlandâs oral traditions have received scholarly attention since the 18th Century; however, collection and analysis has exclusively focused on those passed on âby word of mouth,â and the traditional arts of Scotlandâs deaf communities have been overlooked. This thesis begins to address this oversight by examining storytelling practices passed on âby sign of handâ in British Sign Language (BSL). Neither fully acculturated to majority society nor âforeigners in their own countryâ (Murray 2008:102), signing-deaf people have distinct ways of âdoingâ culture which involve negotiating a bilingual-bicultural continuum between the hearing and deaf worlds. The historical exclusion of signing-deaf culture from conceptualisations of Scotlandâs cultural heritage is increasingly being challenged, both overtly and tacitly, through an emergent âdeaf public voiceâ (Bechter 2008:72); in light of this, I consider three case-studies in which BSL storytelling practices have been placed in the public domain. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews and the in-depth analysis of BSL performance-texts, I examine the ways in which signing-deaf biculturality is expressed and performed, and consider the artistry
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