In Deaf in the USSR, Claire L. Shaw asks what it meant to be deaf in a culture that was founded on a radically utopian, socialist view of human perfectibility. Shaw reveals how fundamental contradictions inherent in the Soviet revolutionary project were negotiated-both individually and collectively- by a vibrant and independent community of deaf people who engaged in complex ways with Soviet ideology.

Deaf in the USSR engages with a wide range of sources from both deaf and hearing perspectives-archival sources, films and literature, personal memoirs, and journalism-to build a multilayered history of deafness. This book will appeal to scholars of Soviet history and disability studies as well as those in the international deaf community who are interested in their collective heritage. Deaf in the USSR will also enjoy a broad readership among those who are interested in deafness and disability as a key to more inclusive understandings of being human and of language, society, politics, and power.

About the Author

Claire L. Shaw is Assistant Professor in the History of Modern Russia at the University of Warwick.

Reviews

A compelling study of the Soviet deaf community.... Deaf in the USSR deserves to be widely read and suggests ways for the experiences of other minority and marginalized Soviet communities to be re-examined.

* Times Literary Supplement *

A landmark in the history of disability and the Soviet welfare state. A stunning first book, it covers the entire Soviet experience from a thought-provoking perspective.

* AUSTRIAN TIMES *

Shaw traces how deaf individuals challenged prevailing notions about their abilities and legal competence while also participating in the underlying goal of the Soviet project to transform "backward" masses into productive and literate citizens.... An important scholarly contribution to the field of deaf history.

* Choice *

Shaw's approach is, first and foremost, historically rigorous. With this, the first definitive account of deaf political advocacy throughout the Soviet twentieth century, Shaw has proffered a fertile platform for further scholarship.

* Slavic Review *

An outstanding work. [Deaf in the USSR] will be of considerable interest to a number of different kinds of readers. For historians of the Soviet Union, it addresses a little-known but potentially quite important aspect of Soviet history. For those interested in the history of deafness and the deaf, it offers fascinating insights into the unique case of deafness in post-revolutionary Russia.... The volume is well-written, cogent, and thoroughly grounded in both historical and archival sources. It is a significant contribution to the literature on the history of deafness and Deaf identity, and we have much for which to be grateful to Shaw.

* Sign Language Studies *

This is an important book for not just historians of Russia and the Soviet Union, nor only scholars of deafness and disability, but for researchers in all of these fields and beyond.

* Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences *

One of the strengths of Deaf in the USSR is its identification of-indeed, emphasis on-tensions that remained unresolved throughout the Soviet era. It is a testimony to Shaw's analytical rigor that she can keep all these dialectical balls in the air without succumbing to incoherence.

* American Historical Review *

Deaf in the USSR succeeds best in offering a deaf-centered, unique overview of the development of political identity of deaf people in urban Russia under the Soviet system, and is a significant contribution to the fields of Deaf Studies and Soviet History.

* The Russian Review *

Claire Shaw's excellent monograph traces a history of deafness-attitudes toward deafness, experiences of deafness-across the Soviet century. It is, above all, a history of shifting discourses about the senses... This is a valuable corrective to oversimplified narratives of Soviet ideology.

-- Emma Widdis * KRITIKA *


Awards
Winner of BASEES Women's Forum Prize 2018 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9781501713668
Author Claire L. Shaw
Format Hardback
Page Count 310
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 27mm