Deaf Adjacency: Liminal Conditions of Not Hearing
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Abstract
This chapter examines deafness as both a diagnosable biological condition and an embodied collection of experiences. By juxtaposing an autobiographical narrative alongside a discussion of historical, cultural, and theoretical perspectives, I provide a framework for identifying and acknowledging the range of Deaf, deaf, and hearing identities in order to demonstrate how the weight of cultural and contextual influence is more disabling than the actual audiological condition. This chapter concludes with a brief overview of Deaf Gain theory, and my connection to it, as a perspective that subverts the connotations associated with deafness by highlighting its affordances.
This paper has been withdrawn.
