Sign Language Poetry on Screen: A Case Study of Ella Mae Lentz’s Silence, Oh Painful

Film and videography have played crucial roles in the documentation of performing arts. One such case is of sign language poetry (SLP), which materializes as a phenomenon through the polylogics among different media like visuals and the performing body. The ways of representation within these inters...

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Main Authors: Mohit Joshi, Niraja Saraswat
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Scientia Publishing House 2024-11-01
Series:Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies
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Online Access:https://acta.sapientia.ro/content/docs/06-422084.pdf
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author Mohit Joshi
Niraja Saraswat
author_facet Mohit Joshi
Niraja Saraswat
author_sort Mohit Joshi
collection DOAJ
description Film and videography have played crucial roles in the documentation of performing arts. One such case is of sign language poetry (SLP), which materializes as a phenomenon through the polylogics among different media like visuals and the performing body. The ways of representation within these intersecting language systems of the body, camera, lights, etc. determine how SLP is received. This paper focuses on Ella Mae Lentz’s American Sign Language poem Silence, Oh Painful as a case study, and analyses multiple performances of it. Lentz’s own performance of the poem from her presentation at the 1987 National ASL Poetry Conference is the primary site of inquiry. In comparison, Alexis Boardrow Green’s performance of the poem, for her ASL Poetry Discourse Analysis course at UC San Diego, is examined. Current research aims to study sign language poetry as an intermedial phenomenon, and see how changes in the performing body and its visual representation affect the poem’s unfolding in space and time, with focus on Martin Heidegger’s concept of poetizing, Yuri Lotman’s semiotics, and Lars Elleström’s material intermediality. Moreover, the article also probes into how the usage of the two media (video and the performing body) affect the intended artwork. In light of varying performing bodies, the article further questions the autotelic qualities attributed to poetry from a new-critical approach to artworks, and inquires into the possibility of multiple unaffiliated intermedial phenomena branching from similar intentionalities.
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spelling doaj-art-f1d2fabd17a64e0dbe2624f86b5089072025-01-13T08:57:18ZengScientia Publishing HouseActa Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies2066-77792024-11-012611315010.47745/ausfm-2024-0014Sign Language Poetry on Screen: A Case Study of Ella Mae Lentz’s Silence, Oh PainfulMohit Joshi0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0975-0986Niraja Saraswat1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6998-6144Malaviya National Institute of TechnologyMalaviya National Institute of TechnologyFilm and videography have played crucial roles in the documentation of performing arts. One such case is of sign language poetry (SLP), which materializes as a phenomenon through the polylogics among different media like visuals and the performing body. The ways of representation within these intersecting language systems of the body, camera, lights, etc. determine how SLP is received. This paper focuses on Ella Mae Lentz’s American Sign Language poem Silence, Oh Painful as a case study, and analyses multiple performances of it. Lentz’s own performance of the poem from her presentation at the 1987 National ASL Poetry Conference is the primary site of inquiry. In comparison, Alexis Boardrow Green’s performance of the poem, for her ASL Poetry Discourse Analysis course at UC San Diego, is examined. Current research aims to study sign language poetry as an intermedial phenomenon, and see how changes in the performing body and its visual representation affect the poem’s unfolding in space and time, with focus on Martin Heidegger’s concept of poetizing, Yuri Lotman’s semiotics, and Lars Elleström’s material intermediality. Moreover, the article also probes into how the usage of the two media (video and the performing body) affect the intended artwork. In light of varying performing bodies, the article further questions the autotelic qualities attributed to poetry from a new-critical approach to artworks, and inquires into the possibility of multiple unaffiliated intermedial phenomena branching from similar intentionalities.https://acta.sapientia.ro/content/docs/06-422084.pdfmaterial intermedialityperforming bodysign language poetryella mae lentzautotelic text
spellingShingle Mohit Joshi
Niraja Saraswat
Sign Language Poetry on Screen: A Case Study of Ella Mae Lentz’s Silence, Oh Painful
Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies
material intermediality
performing body
sign language poetry
ella mae lentz
autotelic text
title Sign Language Poetry on Screen: A Case Study of Ella Mae Lentz’s Silence, Oh Painful
title_full Sign Language Poetry on Screen: A Case Study of Ella Mae Lentz’s Silence, Oh Painful
title_fullStr Sign Language Poetry on Screen: A Case Study of Ella Mae Lentz’s Silence, Oh Painful
title_full_unstemmed Sign Language Poetry on Screen: A Case Study of Ella Mae Lentz’s Silence, Oh Painful
title_short Sign Language Poetry on Screen: A Case Study of Ella Mae Lentz’s Silence, Oh Painful
title_sort sign language poetry on screen a case study of ella mae lentz s silence oh painful
topic material intermediality
performing body
sign language poetry
ella mae lentz
autotelic text
url https://acta.sapientia.ro/content/docs/06-422084.pdf
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AT nirajasaraswat signlanguagepoetryonscreenacasestudyofellamaelentzssilenceohpainful