Identities in dialogical movement: deafness in social context

Abstract

The objective of this study is to verify if and how the actions of verbal ideological, centripetal, and centrifugal forces, linked to deafness in the social context, reflect deaf people and their hearing mothers’ identity positions, all learners of Libras (Brazilian Language of Signs) at CAS Natal. Language is a main force moved by heterogeneous discourses which happen in different modalities, visual or oral, and which are faced as we cross different socio ideological relations, reflecting this way, identity positions. Thus, our investigative eyesight is situated within the area of indisciplinary Applied Linguistics (Moita-Lopes, 2006, 2013; Kleiman, 2013), that brings to the stage the voice of socially marginalized subjects. The concept of language considered as a social practice by the Bakhtin Circle (Bakhtin, 2011, 2015; Volóchinov, 2018, 2019) leads us to the comprehension of the action of forces which create ideological tensions able to subside identity constitutions. The discussion on identities is based on the Cultural Studies (Hall, 2014, 2020; Woodward, 2014), and the discussion on Libras on Deaf Studies (Baleiro Lodi, 2021; Lodi, 2006; Sá, 2010; Skliar, 1998). The data of this qualitative interpretative research was taken from a Master dissertation by Lima (2022). Analyses indicate that verbal ideological forces do influence both deaf and listeners’ representations of deafness. We conclude that the action of the centripetal force is strongly attached to discourses about deafness, but also that the action of centrifugal forces strengthens the resignification of those discourses.