Representation and resistance: A qualitative study of narratives of Deaf cultural identity

Abstract

This qualitative study examines narratives of identity among deaf adults in Denmark who were raised within the Bilingual–Bicultural programme of education. At a time of threat to sign language and the Deaf community, the study explores the distinctiveness of a minority cultural identity rooted in sign language and elaborated through Deaf norms and values. Applying the social psychological theories of social identity and social representations, the analysis shows that while Deaf identity is developed through and against forces of marginalisation and the medicalising system of representation that cochlear implants reify, it both celebrates Deaf culture and embraces cross-cultural dialogue and exchange. The findings run against existing models of deaf identity that posit discrete Deaf (immersive) and bicultural identities. They also disclose the importance of studies of social identity that retrieve the theory’s original emphasis on cultural systems and context to explain identities and intergroup dynamics. Finally, the study has resonances for disability and other minority studies and movements that seek to pay attention to socially creative processes of critiquing normativity and enlarging understandings of culture and identity.