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Deafness and Ethnic Identity: The Idea of a Deaf State and its Resonances with American Exceptionalism and Frontier Ideology

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Abstract

This article focuses on the nineteenth century as a pivotal time for the development of a Deaf identity in the United States and examines the way John Jacob Flournoy’s idea of a “Deaf-Mute Commonwealth” touches upon core themes of American culture studies and history. In employing pivotal democratic ideas such as egalitarianism, liberty, and self-representation as well as elements of manifest destiny such as exceptionalism and the frontier ideology in order to raise support for a Deaf State, the creation and perpetuation of a Deaf identity bears strong similarities to the processes of American nation-building. This article will show how the endeavor to found a Deaf state was indicative of the separationist and secessionist movements in the United States at that time, and remains relevant to Deaf group identity today.


Corresponding author: Dr. Marion Rana, Stiftung kreuznacher diakonie, Leben mit Behinderung, Pfarrer-Reich-Straße 1, 55566 Bad Sobernheim, Germany

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Published Online: 2019-03-06
Published in Print: 2019-03-26

©2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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