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Eyeth: a Novel for the Deaf

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Eyeth: a Novel for the Deaf Running head: EYETH Young 1 Eyeth: A Novel for the Deaf An Honors Capstone Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation with University Honors By: Kelsey Young Committee Chair: Christopher Jon Heuer, Ph.D. Second Reader: Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, Ph.D. Additional Readers: Mr. Kurt Kaufmann, Ms. Megan Thomas, M.S.W. Honors Director: Shirley Shultz Myers, Ph.D. Honors Coordinator: Geoffrey Whitebread, M.A., M.S. Date: July 5, 2013 EYETH Young 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank my wonderful committee, Christopher Heuer (Director) and Teresa Blankmeyer Burke (Second Reader) for putting up with me and helping me finish this Capstone. I also would like to thank my beta readers, Kurt Kaufmann and Megan Thomas for their valuable input on my novel and introduction. Further thanks goes to Shirley Shultz Myers and Geoffrey Whitebread for giving me this opportunity to work on this Capstone through the Honors program. I want to thank Tanya Sturgis for her stupidly simple suggestion of making countries for everyone- it helped make much of Eyeth what it is now. Much thanks also goes out to my family and friends who supported me during the writing of this novel, especially my girlfriend, Megan Thomas, who had to put up with me dragging my netbook almost everywhere to write out the first draft in summer 2012. 2 EYETH Young 3 ABSTRACT Kelsey Young’s science fiction novel Eyeth, to use Tom Humphries’ phrase, is important for deaf literature because it exemplifies “culture talking”—not the proof (“talking culture”) of a monolithic culture apart from the mainstream but complex deaf life on its own terms. It also focuses on a wide range of deaf people involved in intra-deafcentric conflicts; deaf sub-groups include a range of communication preferences (speaking, cued speech, signing) as well as multiple physical differences (deaf-blind, cerebral palsy, wheelchair users) though not ethnic diversity. A critical introduction to the novel explains that science fiction allows the creation of a world that does not exist as a real physical place and allows exploration of intra-group issues that a mainstream context of oppression of all deaf people obscures. The introduction also relates a discussion of the countries on Eyeth to colonialism and post-colonialism theory to provide a framework to the reader for the subsequent analysis of how Eyeth uses but also subverts colonialist thinking through characters’ actions. The novel itself is about a young man, Virgil G, training under the tutelage of the current Guardian of Eyeth, Shawn Wright, who ensures Eyeth doesn’t stray from its original goals of being a deaf world. 3 EYETH Young 4 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................ 2 Critical Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 5 References ........................................................................................................................................... 32 Appendices to Introduction .................................................................................................................. 35 A. List of Characters ........................................................................................................................... 35 B. List of Eyeth Continents and Countries in Americana ............................................................... 39 Eyeth: The Novel .................................................................................................................................... 42 Chapter I: The Meeting ...................................................................................................................... 42 Chapter II: Cassie & Jody ................................................................................................................... 58 Chapter III: Reflections, I ................................................................................................................... 72 Chapter IV: From Clerc to Milan ..................................................................................................... 83 Chapter V: From Milan to Clerc ........................................................................................................ 97 Chapter VI: Reflections, II ................................................................................................................ 108 Chapter VII: Start of a War ................................................................................................................ 115 Chapter VIII: Reflections, III ............................................................................................................ 123 Chapter IX: The Great Traitor .......................................................................................................... 132 Chapter X: Reflections, IV ................................................................................................................ 152 Chapter XI: Forcing the Mold .......................................................................................................... 157 Chapter XII: A Troubled Youth ........................................................................................................ 167 Chapter XIII: Wake-Up Calls ............................................................................................................ 178 Chapter XIV: Change is Coming ...................................................................................................... 194 Chapter XV: A False Eden ................................................................................................................. 201 Chapter XVI: Reflections, V .............................................................................................................. 221 Chapter XVII: Hero, Father. ............................................................................................................ 229 Chapter XVIII: Reflections, VI ......................................................................................................... 256 Chapter XIX: Return from the Underworld .................................................................................... 271 Chapter XX: The Crowning ............................................................................................................. 277 4 EYETH Young 5 Critical Introduction Here’s a challenge for you. Can you think of any story in the English language that features deaf characters? You may be able to think of a few. Now how many of those books or stories feature hearing characters? It seems safe to assume that nearly all of them do. That’s why my novel Eyeth is unique. All of its major characters are deaf. Unlike many other works of deaf literature, it also focuses on a wide range of deaf people, including both those who speak and those who sign. I chose to focus on a wide range of deaf people, not just those from the Deaf culture,1 in my novel for one main reason. People tend to associate deaf people with Deaf culture. Although a majority of people involved with Deaf culture are deaf, a few are hearing like interpreters, spouses and hearing children of Deaf parents, who are called CODAs. More important, some deaf people shun the Deaf community and instead involve themselves with other signed communities without Deaf culture norms or with spoken language communities. Furthermore, culture doesn’t have to be limited to only Deaf people. Per the Merriam-Webster (2013) definition, “culture” is a set of social forms, beliefs and traits particular to a social group. People who grew up in the hearing world think and behave in different ways than those who grew up in a deaf-centric world. For an example of different behaviors between cultures, deaf people would pound on the table to get attention while hearing people would shout. This behavior could be a part of many deaf people’s lives, while other behaviors are specific to particular groups of deaf people. In other words, there can be different cultures for those who are oral deaf, ASL 1 Deaf culture includes those who use American Sign Language and take pride in their deaf identity. 5 EYETH Young 6 deaf or deafblind. No matter the culture, people continue to live in that culture every day. But it’s always better to live culture and discover new ways to expand on it than focus on proving a culture exists. Living a culture and portraying people living it is what Tom Humphries (2008, p. 41) calls “culture talking,” My work aims to show “culture talking” in an expanded sense of the many ways deaf people live. Deaf people tend to discuss the idea of their culture rather than live it. But they need to create and expand their culture and not be focused on proving it to hearing people. Tom Humphries discusses this in his article, “Talking Culture and Culture Talking,” when he writes: “Put simply, we need to move on from ‘How are we different?’ to ‘How are we being?’ (Humphries, 2008, p. 41). In other words, they’re more comfortable with discussing their culture as an object for consumption by others who are not in the culture rather than looking at how they live within their culture. Unlike many other works of deaf literature, my novel has deaf people living in a world where they stand in the majority, and the conflicts involve those among different deaf people. Also unlike other works of deaf
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