Ode às mãos: a presença do real nas artes surdas como motivadora do ato responsável e humanizado

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to understand, from a Marxist perspective, how reflecting on the appearance of deaf hands in art can lead us to comprehend the infrastructure of exclusion and segregation that led deaf people to carry out responsible and humanized acts. Furthermore, the specific objectives of this investigation are to describe how humanity has represented and valued hands in art throughout the centuries; to illustrate the hierarchized values of an infrastructure that culminates in the birth of deaf ideological signs; to re-signify our understanding of the body through Bakhtinian studies; to study the appearance of hands in deaf arts as a responsible act that reflects and refracts the deaf social horizon. In our master's research, we noticed that misconceptions linked to deaf people can be rethought through contact with deaf arts, paving the way for the reconfiguration of these beliefs. During this process, we realized that in the arts, there is an element common to all humans but receives high prominence in practically all deaf arts, the hands. They appear as a protest, a defense, expressing fear and revolt, calling on the spectator to look at the deaf person. Our research found that there are few studies that address the discursive aspects of arts produced by deaf people and the relationship between the hand and the experience of being deaf in a predominantly hearing society. Thus, the need to expand research on this topic becomes evident. Therefore, we argue that deaf hands present in deaf arts are a manifestation of responsible acts stemming from an oppressive infrastructure, and looking at these hands can provoke dialogue and reflection on being deaf, leading to understanding the path that should be taken to practice responsible and humanized acts by us, hearing people, towards the deaf community. This work aims to answer the following question: if and how the appearance of hands in deaf arts reflects and refracts the responsible acts of their producers. For this reason, we adopted a Marxist-based exploratory qualitative approach. This choice was necessary since we reject the bourgeois and elitist conception of fetishizing artwork as a complete and closed entity that can only be described from an aesthetic point of view. Instead, we understand it as an ideological sign that is the product of a complex infrastructure that needs to be considered during its analysis. To achieve this, it was necessary to investigate the facts from the material basis in which they are inserted. This involved, firstly, having a general view of the context, associating it with the data generated in the investigation under the light of the theorists discussed in this research. Thus, our entire work is based on Bakhtin's philosophy of responsible acts (2010) and Gumbrecht's conception of presence (2010). Through the data generated, we found that deaf art is marginalized and invisibilized, but through hands, they reflect the entire infrastructure of oppression exercised by the hearing class. Finally, we concluded that by looking at deaf hands in art, we can also look at the history of this people and thus, understand their struggles, desires, and needs, which can lead us to adopt responsible and humanized acts towards the other-deaf