EVIDENCE OF ELEMENTS OF POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE IN PROSE PRODUCTIONS OF THE DEAF PEOPLE IN BRAZIL

HISTORY, TRADITION AND CULTURE

Abstract

This article aims to present the evidence of post-colonial literature in the prose productions of the deaf people, specifically in culturally adapted tales. In order to understand the importance of these productions for the deaf people, we treat the oral tradition in the literary field that in deaf literature is applied as a visual/spatial or signalized tradition. Then, we l present the brief historical trajectory of deaf literature over time and, afterwards, we analyze culturally adapted tales in deaf literature, presenting the post-colonial evidences in the works. To support this work we will use authors of deaf studies, namely: Lodenir Becker Karnopp, Cláudio Henrique Nunes Mourão and Marta Morgado. For the post-colonial approach, we resort to: Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha and Thomas Bonnici. With regard to the concept of tradition in the literature, we use studies of  Maurice Halbwacs and Ruth Finnegan. The results confirm deaf literature as a space for the construction and reconstruction of meanings, as well as a way of maintaining the culture of the deaf people. Oral tradition, in the context of the literature of the deaf people, can be understood as visual/spatial or signalized tradition, with it and, through it, the cultural tradition and the sign language have remained alive, preserving and strengthening throughout history, the way of being and thinking of the deaf.