Understanding Deaf Culture

Worum geht es?

This book presents a “Traveller’s Guide” to Deaf culture, starting from the premise that Deaf cultures have an important contribution to make to other academic disciplines and to human lives in general. Within and outside Deaf communities, there is a need for an account of the new concept of Deaf culture, which enables readers to assess its place alongside work within other minority cultures and multilingual discourses.

The book assesses the concepts of culture on their own terms and in their many guises and applies these to Deaf communities. The author illustrates the pitfalls that have been created for those communities by an unthinking adherence to the medical concept of “deafness” and contrasts this with his new concept of “Deafhood”, a process by which every Deaf child, family and adult implicitly explains their existence in the world to themselves and each other.

The ethos of the book is one of a journey made by both author and reader, between whom a dialogue is encouraged. This leads to the possibility of a very special and exciting period of cross-fertilisation between all aspects of multilingual and multicultural development.

“Paddy Ladd has done a splendid job with this book: it is enlightening, insightful and deeply reflective.”

Harlan Lane, University Distinguished Professor, Northeastern University, USA

“Paddy Ladd challenges our audiocentric assumptions, portraying with great clarity and insight the rich social and linguistic resources of the Deaf community. Maybe once in every generation a book appears which turns our previous understanding of a subject on its head. This book undoubtedly fits the bill. Prepare to be challenged by the well-marshalled and scholarly arguments of someone writing from the inside – born Deaf, but only too conscious of the hearing perspective.”

Viv Edwards, Professor of Language in Education,
Reading and Language Information Centre, University of Reading, UK

“Paddy Ladd presents a provocative and deeply engaging argument for the necessity of the culture concept for understanding deaf collectivities. Distinguishing between Deaf culture (Deaf traditions) and Deafhood (Deaf culture becoming), Ladd articulates a new framework for both Deaf cultural theory and Deaf cultural action. The result is a tour de force at once insightful, radical and hopeful.”

Carol J. Erting, Professor and William C. Stokoe Fellow, Gallaudet University, USA

Paddy Ladd is a Lecturer and MSc Co-ordinator at the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of Bristol. He completed his PhD in Deaf Culture at Bristol University in 1998 and has written, edited and contributed to numerous publications in the field. Both his writings and his Deaf activism have received international recognition. In 1998, he was awarded the Deaf Lifetime Achievement Award by the Federation of Deaf People for activities that have extended the possibilities for Deaf communities both in the UK and worldwide.

• Gehörlosenkultur
• Forschung