The writing of the Deaf subject: language, experience, and symbolic representation

Abstract

This article analyzes the written production of deaf individuals from a perspective that integrates language, cognition, culture, and experience. Considering the communicational and symbolic barriers faced by deaf people, it discusses how these conditions shape specific forms of world representation, often differing from the sequential and normative logic of alphabetic writing. Drawing on authors such as Vygotsky, Barthes, Lyons, and Langacker, the text argues that deafness should be understood as a linguistic-cultural difference. Consequently, deaf writing expresses a visual, multimodal, and relational logic, grounded in sign language and communal experiences. Collective memory within the deaf community, cultural identity, and symbolic resistance emerge as central elements in the constitution of meaning and organization of thought. From this perspective, the article proposes a reconfiguration of pedagogical practices that recognizes the uniqueness of deaf individuals and values their legitimate ways of signifying. Far from representing a deviation, deaf writing reveals its own epistemological possibilities, challenging paradigms of orality and textual linearity. Schools, therefore, should embrace these manifestations as legitimate and conducive to inclusive education, centered on listening to difference and valuing multiple forms of cognition and expression.