The Deaf : A Symbolic Example of Identitary Tensions
Current deaf identity, as a central issue of the “culturalisation” process of deafness expressed through the Deaf figure, brings together several social logics. This article questions two of these logics. Linked to worlds that are in rupture and in continuity, the logic of institutional help and that of identity-claiming are at the root of the communitarisation process of deaf identity which allows the exploration of negotiations in the construction of deafness as a cultural and ethnical reality. The deaf identity linked to these two logics appears as a complex dyad and, although it provides some insight on the Deaf figure, several questions related to the “culturalisation” of deafness remain unanswered.