ABSTRACT

In the past, Leila Monaghan has looked at both how Deaf communities have come together and organized themselves into thriving communities tied together by common memories, values, and language; and at the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on Deaf communities. In this chapter, she examines how understanding emotion unites these two disparate areas of study: how laughter and commonality bind communities; and how lament, sorrow, death, and the fear of death tear communities apart. Studying emotion-laden microinteractions shows how a range of larger macroworlds have been built in the Deaf communities in New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.