Myself and the Other in the Discourse of Deafness

Abstract

The discourse on deafness has been changing over time influenced by academic and social movements. In this study, we will focus on the discourses on deafness produced by deaf people. We start from the triad universe, space and discursive field (Maingueneau, 2005). In the discursive field of deafness we found two discursive formations (DF) which oppose each other. One from a clinical and therapeutic background — from which an Hearing-Based Discourse originates — and another of anthropological-linguistic origin, which enables the emergence of a Deaf Based Discourse. While the first DF sees deafness from the stigma of disability, the second conceives deafness from the value of difference. In the field in question we notice that positions and enunciative identities are defined from the denial of the other. From the analysis of texts written about deafness by deaf graduate students we have found the prevalence of the Deaf Based Discourse (81 %). We have noticed that it was from the denial of the simulacrum of the Hearing-Based Discourse that the Deaf Based Discourse was established. We have also noticed that the interaction between the DFs, in the discursive space in question, allows for the clarification and the definition of each other.