Magdalena Zdrodowska

Staring at Extraordinary Bodies. On the Polish Translations of Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s Books

Article reviews the Polish translation of two fundamental monographs in global disability studies scholarship: Extraordinary Bodies (1997) and Staring: How We Look (2009) by Rosemary Garland-Thomson. First, books are discussed in the context of global disability studies, with special attention paid to the influences of the theoretical and methodological frame of literary studies in the 1990s. Secondly, Polish translations are considered an important element of the current establishment of the field of disability studies in Polish academia.

* Artykuł powstał w wyniku realizacji projektu badawczego o nr 2019/35/B/HS2/02287 finansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki.

Deaf Culture as culture of resistance. How the Deaf Culture emerged in the United States and was adopted in Poland

Deaf Culture is a part of the long process of evolution of the American deaf community. Established in American social, cultural and political realm, Deaf Culture benefited greatly from the principles of self-organisation, self-efficiency as well as civil rights movements and movement of people with disabilities, gaining its peak in the 1990s. In this form Deaf Culture was adopted by the Polish deaf communities, that were redefining themselves in the post-socialist transformation period. Adapting the American model of Deaf Culture as normative, the only “true” and “correct” deaf experience, Polish deaf took over: the distinction between Deaf and deaf, the opposition towards cochlear implants, and the spirit of resistance and public protesting. The article investigates the resistant character of the Deaf Culture as well as its consequences in Polish post-socialist political and social context. 

* Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu sfinansowanego ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki przyznanych na podstawie decyzji numer DEC-2014/15/D/HS2/03252 – projekt Telefon, kino i cyborgi. Relacje rozwoju technologii i społeczności niesłyszących w XX i XXI wieku.

The article is devoted to the signed narratives created by the deaf communities and presents the attempt of genology of sign narratives they are divided into: deaf-lore (storytelling), cinematographic stories, signed songs and stories with constraints (e.g. ABC or number stories). The main corpus of artwork described and analyzed in the article is signed in American Sign Language, but author tried to take into consideration Polish Sign Language works as well. Apart from the genres and types of the signed narratives author tries to place them in a broader context. Most important is the doubt whether deaf narratives may be considered literature at all, as they do not use words and letters in traditional way. The influence of the moving picture technology is also considered as a powerful boost to the signed narratives.

Národopis, ethnography, social anthropology, cultural anthropology…
Brief history of the culturology in Czech Republic
The article summarizes the history of the academic refl ection on the culture research in Czech Republic from the beginnings of the národopis in the late 19th century till contemporary refl ection on culture under the brand of anthropology. It covers the diffi culties with defi ning the fi eld of the research as well as the discipline name problem. The plurality of disciplines we can now observe in Czech cultural studies is explained in context of the social and political circumstances, especially the belonging to the soviet universum after the 2nd World War. Finally the article tries to explain the great diffi culty with application of the Western, especially British, cultural studies into the postcommunist intellectual milieu

To hide, to disguise, to camouflage: troubling visibility of sound amplifying instruments

In the 19th century, the ear trumpet became a ubiquitous attribute of deaf people. This large clumsy device was synonymous with deaf issues such as misinterpretation and other communication difficulties, leading to deafness being seen as a funny impairment, in contrast to blindness. Deaf users wanted to hide these stigmatizing devices, therefore producers invented sophisticated ways of disguising them as hats, fans or even chairs. Similarly, producers of the new electric hearing aids of the time followed this trend by designing them in the form of bags, jewelry, and glasses (it was still better to be shortsighted than hard-of-hearing). The miniaturization afforded by transistors consequently served the same aim.
However, trumpets and especially hearing aids reflect the social and cultural emancipation of deaf communities that took place over the course of the 20th century; from aids bashfully hidden to instruments available in vivid colors and styles (e.g. with animal patterns or in punk styles) and decorated with specially designed jewelry used by the “proud Deaf”.
The article is based on twofold empirical research: object-oriented analysis of the ear trumpet and hearing aid collection at Thackray’s Medical Museum (Leeds, Great Britain), and analysis of hearing aid advertisements published in Volta Review since 1910.
 

Digital turn in anthropology?

Netnography, webnography, cyberanthropology, online and virtual ethnography – new labels and academic brands are mushrooming on the ground of the anthropology within the last two decades. They reflect the growth and diversity of the new media phenomena and platforms but also serve as a PR tool for making anthropology seem modern and up-to-date. Can we actually pronounce the new paradigm/turn within the anthropology/ethnography when transferring them online? I wonder whether the binary opposition between the real and the virtual in which anthropology seems to be caught brings epistemological benefits, what is the source of this digital dualism and finally why the digital- and cyber- prefixes do more harm that benefit anthropology.
 

Victorian ear trumpets in XX and XXI century

Throughout the 19th century ear trumpets became the most popular and in fact the only technical solution for deaf people. They merged with the behavior regarded as typical for the deaf such as misinterpretations and communicational loss, therefore ear trumpets turned into a social stigma. They became objects that were bashfully hidden by users. In the 20th century however ear trumpets’image as well as functions changed as they were substituted with modern, electric and later electronic hearing prostheses. Once ear trumpets became antiquated their place in the technological landscape have changed. They did not vanish but relocated within the social and cultural domain. Article is based on: object oriented analysis of ear trumpets, interview with the ear trumpet collector, discourse analysis of the ear trumpet advertisements documents from British National Archives and The Thackray Museum in Leeds.

* Artykułpowstałw ramach projektu sfinansowanego ze środków Państwowego Funduszu Rehabilitacji Osób Niepełnosprawnych – nr umowy BEA/000052/BF/D, Trąbki słuchowe dla głuchych w XX i XXI wieku. Losy akustycznych wzmacniaczy w czasach elektryczności i elektroniki.