"The tradition of rhetoric established 2,500 years ago emphasizes the imperative of speech as a defining characteristic of reason. But in her new book Lend Me Your Ear, Brenda Jo Brueggemann exposes this tradition's effect of disallowing deaf people human identity because of their natural silence."--BOOK JACKET.

"Brueggemann's assault upon this long-standing rhetorical conceit is both erudite and personal; she writes both as a scholar and as a hard-of-hearing woman. In this broadly based study, she presents a profound analysis and understanding of rhetorical tradition's descendent disciplines that continue to limit deaf people, such as audiology and speech/language pathology.

Next to this even-handed scholarship, she juxtaposes a volatile, emotional counterpoint achieved through interviews with Deaf individuals who have faced rhetorically constructed restrictions and with interludes of her own poetry and memoirs."--BOOK JACKET.