Cleavings

Using poems by Emily Dickinson and recent work in cultural and queer theory, this final chapter explores the fine line between “gain” and “loss” in disability studies. Using the author’s own experience of gradual hearing loss, the chapter argues that recent claims for the positive values of “deaf gain” through the use of American Sign Language have vaunted possibilities of cultural inclusiveness to the exclusion of affective realms of frustration, loss, and failure that are seldom acknowledged experiences of deaf and hard-of-hearing persons. While endorsing the general thrust of Deaf Gain and its implications for the larger context of disability, the chapter argues for a more critical understanding of loss in the politics of gain.