Deaf Cultural Production in Twentieth-Century Madrid

Abstract

This article chronicles the recent processes of identity formation among deaf people in Spain, both analyzing Spanish-language poetry published in the journal Faro del Silencio and outlining new directions for research on Deaf culture in Spain in terms of film, theater, visual poetry. It draws attention to the significant connections between the Spanish and American contexts in both the development of deaf history itself and the subsequent theoretical support for Deaf identity in its cultural and linguistic aspects. This essay suggests that the question of a cultural Deaf identity in Spain, and Deaf identities elsewhere, can never be an easy one. The discussion advances the notion that further analyses of Deaf culture and literature in Spain will aid in this process to promote the formation of an inclusive even contradictory identity.