Estudos Culturais, diferença e surdez: uma leitura teórica

Abstract

The main aim of this essay is to analyze the critical and theoretical contributions of the Cultural Studies on the understanding of deafness as difference, breaking with the idea of disability which guided the readings of deafness and of the deaf subject. The present analysis draws from the acknowledgement that the understanding of the deaf community as a minority group that establishes an element of distinction in the hegemonic culture, resulting in a new form of representation of the Other under the perspective of difference, is the result of the appropriation of concepts such as identity, difference and culture from a political perspective. In order to achieve this aim, we pursue a bibliographical review structured in three analytical axis: the first one is focused on the investigation of the questions which guided the formation of the field of Cultural Studies; the second aims at evaluating the concept of difference in light of the contributions by post-structuralist and Cultural Studies theoreticians, and, lastly, the third axis examines the use of the concept of difference as a critical and theoretical tool for the treatment of deafness and of the deaf subject.