ASL and Fairy Tales

The presentation of Dr. Rust and Rose was very moving and interesting. They focused on the use of ASL to tell stories. It is incredible how the deaf culture in America has developed their own form of communication and with that they are able to spread the folktales that are predominantly passed down through the oral tradition. When they presented the tales using ASL I was shocked at how well I was able to understand the story when I had no background in American sign language at all. What really stood out for me was the fact that through ASL the tales can be portrayed similar to watching a movie, in that at certain moments you can present the story in slow motion and with influence from cinematography. The speaker also mentioned that he was a child of deaf parents and when he would go out to watch a movie he would come home and recite the storyline of the movies in a storytelling setting. He would sign the movie for his family as they sat around and watched the film through his sign language. Additionally, the speakers brought to attention that in the deaf community a lot of the stories poke fun at the dominate population and make fun of “hearing” people. This presentation opened my eyes to truly grasp how fairy tales are not just stories that are dependent on oral or auditory forms of communication but can also be portrayed visually.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZjah32LoW0 - Coda Brothers