Diana Taylor

DIVAn interdisciplinary study about the centrality of performance in Latin American culture and politics./div

Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas

The Archive and the Repertoire

Performance

Annelise Orleck

Alexis Jetter

Essays and interviews explode the myth of apolitical motherhood by showing how 20th century women have politicized their role as mothers in a wide range of social contexts.

Activist Voices from Left to Right

The Politics of Motherhood

Taylor uses performance theory to explore how public spectacle both builds and dismantles a sense of national and gender identity. Here, nation is understood as a product of communal "imaginings" that are rehearsed, written and staged - and spectacle is the desiring machine at work in those imaginings. Taylor argue that the founding scenario of Argentineness stages the struggle for national identity as a battle between men - fought on, over, and through the feminine body of the Motherland. She shows how the military's representations of itself as the model of national authenticity established the parameters of the conflict in the 70s and 80s, feminized the enemy, and positioned the public - limiting its ability to respond.

Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's "dirty War"

Disappearing Acts

Roselyn Costantino

DIVTranslations of texts by important Latin American women playwrights, and performance artists, together with essays about their work./div

Latin American Women Perform

Holy Terrors

Latin American theatre is among the most innovative in the world today. The period 1965 1970 was one of intense theatrical production in the region. Dozens of major playwrights and collective theaters produced hundreds of highly original plays. This was also a period of profound ideological and sociopolitical transformation. Hopes for Latin American self-definition and self-determination after centuries of colonization and foreign exploitation began to crumble, while the right-wing backlash produced a politics of terror. In this dynamic study, Diana Taylor proposes that, for all the diversity of peoples, languages, and cultural images in Latin America, the effects of crisis on the region s theatre are surprisingly uniform. As a cultural subsystem, theatre is both a product of and a commentary on the making and dismantling of society at large. Theatre of Crisis is an important source of information for Latin Americanists as well as theatre specialists and literary critics interested in this virtually unexplored field.

Theatre of Crisis: Drama and Politics in Latin America

"Performance" has multiple and often overlapping meanings that signify a wide variety of social behaviors. In this invitation to reflect on the power of performance, Diana Taylor explores many of its uses and iterations: artistic, economic, sexual, political, and technological performance; the performance of everyday life; and the gendered, sexed, and racialized performance of bodies. This book performs its argument. Images and texts interact to show how performance is at once a creative act, a means to comprehend power, a method of transmitting memory and identity, and a way of understanding the world.

'til the End of Time is a purely fictional account of the enduring love affair between Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, MGM stars of the thirties and forties. It depicts how things could have transpired had they not been denied the right to love and the storyline is built on factual references from the controversial book'Sweethearts: ' maceddy.com published after many years of research by Sharon Rich. Known the world over as America's Singing Sweethearts, Jeanette and Nelson made eight magical films together (now being released on DVD) whilst conducting a timeless, private affair forbidden by studio mogul Louis B. Mayer.

'Til the End of Time

Holy Terrors presents exemplary original work by fourteen of Latin America’s foremost contemporary women theatre and performance artists. Many of the pieces—including one-act plays, manifestos, and lyrics—appear in English for the first time. From Griselda Gambaro, Argentina's most widely recognized playwright, to such renowned performers as Brazil's Denise Stoklos and Mexico’s Jesusa Rodríguez, these women are involved in some of Latin America's most important aesthetic and political movements. Of varied racial and ethnic backgrounds, they come from across Latin America—Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Peru, and Cuba. This volume is generously illustrated with over seventy images. A number of the performance pieces are complemented by essays providing context and analysis. The performance pieces in Holy Terrors are powerful testimonies to the artists' political and personal struggles. These women confront patriarchy, racism, and repressive government regimes and challenge brutality and corruption through a variety of artistic genres. Several have formed theatre collectives—among them FOMMA (a Mayan women’s theatre company in Chiapas) and El Teatro de la máscara in Colombia. Some draw from cabaret and ‘frivolous’ theatre traditions to create intense and humorous performances that challenge church and state. Engaging in self-mutilation and abandoning traditional dress, others use their bodies as the platforms on which to stage their defiant critiques of injustice. Holy Terrors is a unique English-language presentation of some of Latin America's fiercest, most provocative art. Contributors Sabina Berman Tania Bruguera Petrona de la Cruz Cruz Diamela Eltit Griselda Gambaro Astrid Hadad Teresa Hernández Rosa Luisa Márquez Teresa Ralli Diana Raznovich Jesusa Rodríguez Denise Stoklos Katia Tirado Ema Villanueva

Diana Taylor, PhD RN NP Faan

In ¡Presente! Diana Taylor asks what it means to be physically and politically present in situations where it seems that nothing can be done. As much an act, a word, an attitude, a theoretical intervention, and a performance pedagogy, Taylor maps ¡presente! at work in scenarios ranging from conquest, through colonial enactments and resistance movements, to present moments of capitalist extractivism and forced migration in the Americas. ¡Presente!—present among, with, and to; a walking and talking with others; an ontological and epistemic reflection on presence and subjectivity as participatory and relational, founded on mutual recognition—requires rethinking and unlearning in ways that challenge colonial epistemologies. Showing how knowledge is not something to be harvested but a process of being, knowing, and acting with others, Taylor models a way for scholarship to be present in political struggles.

The Politics of Presence

¡Presente!

Sarah J. Townsend

Stages of Conflict brings together an array of dramatic texts, tracing the intersection of theater and social and political life in the Americas over the past five centuries. Historical pieces from the sixteenth century to the present highlight the encounter between indigenous tradition and colonialism, while contributions from modern playwrights such as Virgilio Pinero, Jose Triana, and Denise Stolkos take on the tumultuous political and social upheavals of the past century. The editors have added critical commentary on the origins of each play, affording scholars and students of theater, performance studies, and Latin American studies the opportunity to view the history of a continent through its rich and diverse theatrical traditions.--from publisher's statement.

Diana Taylor

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