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Analysing Sign Language Poetry

Rachel Sutton-Spence

This is the very first book to look at sign language poetry. It treats sign language poetry in the same analytical way as spoken poetry, providing a 'toolbox' for poetic analysis; analyzes poems in both British and American Sign Language; and, includes many illustrations taken from video and TV performances of sign language poetry. This new study is a major contribution to sign language study and to literature generally, looking at the complex grammatical, phonological and morphological systems of sign language linguistic structure and their role in sign language poetry and performance. Chapters deal with repetition and rhyme, symmetry and balance, neologisms, ambiguity, themes, metaphor and allusion, poem and performance, and blending English and sign language poetry.

Major poetic performances in both BSL and ASL, with emphasis on the work of the deaf poet Dorothy Miles, are analyzed using the tools provided in the book.

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, UK (2008).

Paperback - 288 pages, Illustrations

Our Price: £19.99

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