Les Sourds sont-ils des êtres à réparer ? Entre tentative d’émancipation et mouvements d’autoréparation

• Main Author: Olivier Schetrit
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: L’Harmattan 2021-03-01
• Series: Droit et Cultures
• Subjects: Deaf body; Sign language; Culture; IVT (International Visual Theatre); Disability
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/droitcultures/6778

If deafness was perceived as a deficiency to be repaired as quickly as possible at the end of the 19th century, through institutionalized oralization, the affirmation of the deaf individual after the second half of the 20th century challenged these conceptions of normality. Artistic expression through French International Visual Theatre helped to accelerate this awakening movement, as some of its actors testify. The affirmation of deafness, thanks to the pride of its sign language, has allowed a reconstruction of an identity devalued and stigmatized by societal rejection. Several plays have allowed an exorcism of the collective memory by replaying dark periods in the history of the deaf. Paradoxically, the recovery of this latter by hearing people has created situations of audism, an amalgam of ostracizing behaviors on the «Deaf body». And auditory repair with medical biotechnology is putting pressure on an original Deaf culture, while hearing people can benefit from the Deaf Gain.