Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood

by Paddy Ladd

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 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 on other minority cultures and multilingual discourses. The book aims to assess the concepts of culture, on their own terms and in their many guises and to apply these to Deaf communities. The author illustrates the pitfalls which have been created for those communities by 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.

Genres: Nonfiction

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a treasure trove of knowledge, research, and interviews. Anyone interested in understanding Deaf culture should pick up this book. While it focuses its study primarily on the UK, it touches on some of the important themes that are much more global. I would love to read an updated edition of this as well. A lot could be said about the last 20 years.

The only truly slow parts for me were the methodological sections. While entirely necessary, I am just someone who is not knowledgeable on such issues.

[Aaron Makepeace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book as, being a deaf BSL user myself, i am concerned by the apparent increasing popularity of the younger, social media savvy generation of deaf people referring to themselves as disabled, as well as criticising other deaf who decline to label themselves in this way.

"If you don't like being called disabled, you must hate & look down on disabled people", this was a response to my own argument that i was certainly not expecting.

The fervor with which many people, D & d alike, have supported recent legal challenges which explicitly label all Deaf people as disabled filled me with abject horror. Horror at the legal precedent they set & the blurring of linguistic/cultural identity with that of disability. This is to my mind a sinkhole that threatens the future existence of BSL & the deaf community.

I was happy to find a chapter covering this phenomenon (its not a new thing) & delighted to read of explanations as to the origins of this mindset, as well as how to counter it.
In fact the very first paragraph on the very first page accurately portrayed my perception of what has doggedly stunted our efforts for BSL getting legal status as well as perfectly describing the person whose response i have written above.


"People with disabilities, Deaf people, and others who might not even consider themselves as having a disability have been relegated to the margins by the very people who have celebrated and championed the emergence of multiculturalism, class consciousness, feminism and queer studies, from the margins" (Lennard Davis, 1997)


The text also expands on the boundaries of the furiously debated D/d issue.
It is my view that language rather than degrees of "hearing loss" or which school one went to is what truly defines the two and i was pleased to see this mentioned.

If you can put up with the incessant references to "the white man" & the authors seeming fondness for seminal communist thinkers & their worldview, this work will furnish your mind with great research, this is a work that is of great credit to Ladd who has not, in my opinion, received the recognition from us deaf people that is so thoroughly deserved, much like the late Terry Riley for his efforts too.

I would recommend this book to hearing people who are interested in deaf culture & the language that anchors it. Perhaps you are at odds with some of the views of deaf people harbor or wonder why we can be very up front, direct or "angry" about some issues. This book will aid your understanding, its not personal.

If you are Deaf as i am & worry about the direction some "deaf leaders" are taking us, this book will also be of great benefit. At times it makes for grim & depressing reading but thankfully, does not fail in offering potential routes & strategems for improvement.

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure brilliance, in explaining the way in which Deaf live, think, and behave towards one another. Our language, although varied around the world, can always be understood by other Deaf people, regardless of their spoken language. The barriers between Deaf and hearing would evaporate, if only people would take this on board, read this book, and understand what it truly means to be Deaf in today's world. Great book. It has been added to my book shelf at home and will be read time and again.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wide window into Deaf culture. Very academic and theoretical, and at 450+ pages it took a lot of time and focus (and several re-starts) for me to stick with it.

[lola · Rating 5 out of 5]

insanely, insanely informative

[Cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly theoretical sociology that explores the foundations of Deaf culture--coined here as Deafhood--that has become a seminal work in Deaf Studies. This isn't an easy or particularly enjoyable book to read for pleasure. It's chock-full of sociological jargon and Paddy Ladd discussing why XYZ framework doesn't work for Deaf culture. The over-intellectualization aside, this is a work of great importance as it is the most thorough examination of how we can use sociological--perhaps, more specifically, cutrual puralism--to understand Deaf culture.

If you're not interested in theory and want to get more into the daily lives of the Deaf ... this is really, really, not the right book for you. The "Understanding" portion of the title only has to do with the extremely intellectual (overly so? Maybe!) and academic sort of understanding. For a more personal, human-level undersatnding, look elsewhere.

[Philip]

I started reading this book a couple of times, but this time, I am determined to finish this book before next semester!

[Loryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ladd's work was okay, but very, very wordy.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Champ! Very good resource and reference... Eyes opening! A backup for any Deaf person, when he needs information on the Deaf history!

[Ladyfilosopher]

THE must read to understand the Deaf reality and culture, the pain of living in an ableist society and more.