Deaf Identities in the Making: Local Lives, Transnational Connections

2. LIMINALITY

LIMINALITY Read any book on deafened people and the lack of self confidence and the poor self image of the deafened person is discussed. But without exception, all see this as being a product of inability to hear, of faults in the ears and not of society which does not value us. We are stuck with these pathological models and medical definitions of who we are, when in reality we are not sick or ill people. We are people who are socially, psychologically and politically oppressed. (WOOLLEY 1991) Deafened people are also pathologized from yet another angle. Within the Deaf signing communities as well, deafened people are often viewed as suspect figures. This is because they are not accepted as being really deaf, and they are often accused of being too willing to pass as hearing people. Deafened people seldom learn sign language fluently. Because fluency is a marker of loyalty and common experience, many deafened people do not feel welcomed as full members of the Deaf community. This promotes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the signing community’s hesitation prevents many deafened people from entering in the first place. From a purist position, born-deaf people have difficulty handling the impurity associated with deafened people—because deafened people often prefer to use spoken 45 2 language, plus signs as support. For some, this is a mixed mode that jeopardizes sign language proper. How it really feels to be deafened resides, however, in the eyes and hearts of those concerned. In the three stories below, we will get glimpses into this. But first, I would like to present an illustrative episode at the Deaf College in Ål. IDENTITY, AMBIVALENCE, AND CONFRONTATION: ÅL, NOVEMBER 1998 While conducting my short-term fieldwork at Ål, I happened to be present at one event that developed quite dramatically. As one of the few empowered permanent places in the Norwegian Deaf world, the school, in cooperation with its connected enterprises, hosts a lot of different individuals and groups for short and long periods. Numerous courses are arranged in addition to the regular one-year courses at the Deaf College, such as courses for hearing parents of deaf children, for deaf retired people , and so forth. There are also courses for deafened people and their next of kin. In November 1998, one such course was held. One of the students at the Deaf College, Siri, who had turned deaf quite recently, had for a long time felt that neither the hearing students nor her deaf, signing costudents understood her and other deafened people’s situation. They could not grasp the ambivalence, the uncertainty, the lost capacity for communication, the loneliness, and frustration both she and others experienced , she told me. Siri took advantage of the presence of the mentioned course and arranged an open meeting in the conference hall. Everyone was invited and the hall was full. Siri introduced the two speakers. One of them was Tove, who had turned deaf as an adult. The other was Alf, a hearing husband of a deafened woman. They were both to tell about their experiences and their lives, the latter about how to live with a deafened spouse. The “performance” was well done, as long as Tove was speaking. She spoke both clearly and at the right speed for the interpreter. She was polite, but she had an intriguing appeal to the Deaf community. She asked them to be patient, because it takes time to readjust and learn a new language. She spoke further about the loss she had experienced by being bereft of 46 DEAF IDENTITIES her hearing. She especially still missed long, spoken conversations with loved ones and music. She explained how this loss of something that was cherished fostered a long period of grief and work for self-reconciliation. It takes time to learn sign language and to become an “insider,” but she was eager to state that both the language and the Deaf community were cherished possessions for her. Her appeal was further directed at previous friends and other hearing acquaintances, because they tended to become either indifferent or simply disappeared. Then it was Alf’s turn. He started in a similar sober mode, developed a picture of the loss he and his wife had experienced, and painted a strongly romantic picture of “the hearing culture.” Then, quite suddenly, his tale turned into a defense of CI, which...