The answer to question

这篇文章表示，不同于已有的传统美国手语(ASL)文学流派，像故事，笑话和诗歌。发生在1988年3月，伊士曼由一个演员和剧作家的身份创建了一套动作。他说到“据我所知，我还不知道由谁执行”。因此，他是第一个用一种创新的途径来强调美国手语(ASL)文学流派的重要性。

Firstly, different from existing traditional genre of America sign language (ASL) literature like narratives, jokes and poetry, when re-enacting the movements of Deaf president Now (DPN) (the website of Gallaudet university) which happened in march 6-13 1988, Eastman created a performance as both a performer and playwright, giving a close-up view of what took place during the week In DPN movement to describe the significant historical events within Deaf Culture. As he states “To my knowledge, I do not know anyone who performs”. Therefore, he is the first one who applied a creative way to stress the importance of one historical incident in (ASL) literature. 

Secondly, the origin of the word comes from one of the audience who commented the performance. ”Someone in the audience said it was almost like a Greek story. [and] thus resulted the title...‘Epic: Gallaudet Protest.’” (Signing On the Body Poetic, 170) The meaning of an epic itself means a certain air of grandeur and sweeping drama, wherein the story has a theme of grandeur and heroism, it memorizes and values an important history event in the past and giving warning to today’s life. Therefore, the DPN movement itself is of great importance within Deaf Culture.
  So the factors I mention above contribute to the new genre’s qualification as an “epic”.
  As a school for deaf student, Gallaudet College appoints all of its president who had been hearing since 1864, in 1988, the DPN movement promoted the change of hearing president into a deaf president- I. King Jordan. The factors which made the movement become successful and the meaning of the movement is not just as simple as it seems (Deaf President Now! Positive Media Framing, Jean Kensicki ). As it is said” Many deaf persons, signing or nonsigning, know all too well the lifelong struggle not only to understand but to be understood”( Signing On the Body Poetic ,182). Thus as a minority, it is a defeat of a minority against majority and the actual voices of students in Gallaudet College or even the deaf group are heard by the world, what they really is to be understand, to have the same rights as the hearing people. Besides, it is a struggle in many levels like indicated in class including students and board, private and public, deaf and hearing, Cultural, Pathological definitions of self-autonomy and oppression. That is, the DPN movement to some extent can effect to change people’s prejudice and accelerate equality of the whole society.
 
  The answer to question 2
  In my opinion, theater is a place where people from different backgrounds to entertain themselves. In the same place and same time, people focus on one theme, experience and feel. A deaf theater has the same purpose to entertain people, but the kind of theater concentrate on a special group-deaf people, and its theme usually relate to the lives of deaf people or it can provide convenience by signing language. Besides, the deaf theaters embodies a two-world condition that is life within both majority and Deaf communities. “Like the theatricals of the Middle Ages, indigenous Deaf American Theater remains close to the everyday lives of its viewers. When Deaf playwrights create original scripts, they tend to focus on immediate social and political matters.”(Signing On the Body Poetic ,74). By this way, the hearing people can experience and feels the life of deaf people which can enhance the mutual understanding of both sides.
  The meaning of collaboration is different when it refers to different professions. But in general, it means the participation of two sides. In the realm of theater, collaboration has 2 meaning to me. First, the playwright who create deaf theme can absorb inspiration from two-world conditions, he or she can cooperate with different disciplines or life of people to make the topic more attractive and profound. On the other hand, the collaboration refers to the two-world audience, the hearing people and deaf people, by go to theater, as I mention in the first paragraph, they can experience and understand the feeling of opposite role.
  Because the unable to hear the world, the requirement of deaf audience is different and they focus more on body language and the outside environment (Hearing Difference across Theatres, Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren). They prefer to enjoy visual creativity that using visual stimuli such as colors, shapes, movements, and gradations of light and dark. More actions with body or in profile and less talks are required and the plot also need to be simple and clear with humorous instead of complicated and abstract themes. “The aim is not to put on a well-made, classical, three- to five-act comedy or tragedy but to bring together and foster cultural pride and identity in a widely scattered people.” (Signing On the Body Poetic,78)
  The key values of the concept of group. “In its more indigenous form, the Deaf American play is cultural performance, uniting the community (including its marginal members) and facilitating a bonding and defining of the culture’s identity and viability”, (Signing On the Body Poetic,78) therefore, the function of a deaf theater is not giving an classic and excellent performance, but a place where people to find a sense of belonging or a culture’s identity and viability.  

  The answer to question 3
  In the past, it was considered as a bad idea for the deaf children to speak by using sign language while now they are encouraged to learn sign language. People’s attitude towards the deaf people who speak language although they cannot hear the outside world or refuse to give a speech by using sign language change ironically, which is regarded as the “greatest irony”.
  In the deaf culture, they view speech as a scandal which separating them form ASL and allowing speech to appear in their performances. “For the hearing educator, speech is the key to normalization in hearing-based culture; for the Deaf signer, speech is the sign of an alienating process that merely performing can make evident”. (Signing On the Body Poetic, 216). Thus the role of hearing-aid is at a dilemma and controversial, most of deaf people refuse to wear Cochlear implants and tend to exclude speech in hearing society. (Cochlear implants, L. Swanson).In deaf people’s perspective, speech and language are two separate things and it is not a reflection of a person’s hearing status sign language rather than speech is their language in their communities. It said “Oralist values has been combated by an increasingly politicized social movement of the Deaf who regard themselves not as a handicapped population but as a linguistic minority with distinct cultural and historical traditions” (Signing On the Body Poetic, 217), which indicate a completely understanding of speech.
  In our hearing society, most of our communications are based on the speech, which promote the mutual understanding, the efficient work accomplishment and effective measures which can be taken immediately. The emphasis on speech comes from the history because of its importance in human society and it was generally considered that a person with “good speech” is a person of “good intelligence”, anyone who can give an excellent speech is regarded as a charming person who can speak out and pass his experience. In modern hearing society, people who can express themselves tend to be have an advantage than those who are not good at speech. Politicians, business men, lecturers and lots of roles depends a lot on speech. All those factors lead to the emphasis on the speech.
  The same as sign language in deaf communities, speech is the major communication ways in hearing communities and it is the most widely used core ability in human society, thus because of its powerful strength in mutual understanding and generally used for long time. The emphasis of speech and speech based pedagogies came into being. During the emphasis process, there is no doubt the powerful speech ability will emerge in Literature, including movies, dramas, storytelling performance and so on, because the majority of the society has the ability to enjoy the kind of literature.
  Generally, how has this been portrayed in our canon of literature?

Reference
1. Signing On the Body Poetic, Essays on America Sign Language Culture.
2. Jean Kensicki. Deaf President Now! Positive Media Framing of a Social Movement within a Hegemonic Political Environment, Journal of Communication Inquiry April 2001 vol. 25 no. 2: 147-166.
3. Gallaudet University: Deaf President Now. Gallaudet.edu. May 12, 2014.
4. Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren. Hearing Difference across Theatres: Experimental, Disability, and Deaf Performance. Theatre Journal .Volume 58, Number 3, October 2006.
5. L. Swanson .Cochlear implants: the head-on collision between medical technology and the right to be deaf. CMAJ October 1, 1997 vol. 157 no. 7.

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