The Archive and the Repertoire

In "The Archive and the Repertoire" pre-eminent performance studies scholar Diana Taylor provides a new understanding of the vital role of performance in the Americas. From plays to official events to grassroots protests, performance, she argues, must be taken seriously as a means of storing and transmitting knowledge. She shows how the repertoire of embodied memory - conveyed in gestures, the spoken word, movement, dance, song, and other performances - offers alternative perspectives to those derived from the written archive and is particularly useful to a reconsideration of historical processes of transnational contact."The Archive and the Repertoire" invites a re-mapping of the Americas based on traditions of embodied practice. Taylor considers contemporary performances from North and South America. Among these are public demonstrations in Argentina over DNA and photographic identification of 'the disappeared'; plays of Peru's leading theatre collective, Yuyachkani; performance artists Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gomez-Pena's show Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit ..., astrological readings by Univision personality. Walter Mercado, the theatre of mourning surrounding Princess Diana's death, and Brazilian artist Denise Stoklos's Civil Disobedience. Through these studies and meditations on the media's representation of the Twin Towers disaster, New Yorkers' participation in the crisis through memorials and photography, and her own role as a witness to the events of 9/11, Taylor highlights the crucial role of performance in culture.

"While I am trained to appreciate Taylor's analyses of Latino/a theatre and performance, I was most moved and surprised by her discussion of September 11 in chapter 9. As Taylor shows, the abundance of media attention and commentary produced after the destruction of the Twin Towers obscured the lives of nonheroes and nonvictims and turned all of them into spectators. Her testimony as scholar and participant in the events surrounding the attack is enlightening, but also refreshing."--Margo Milleret, Theatre Journal "[A] timely collection of essays...Taylor weaves together insights, examples, and critical strategies from [performance studies and Latina/o American studies] and her exemplary book makes a major contribution to both."--Marvin Carlson, TDR: The Drama Review "The book is itself both a performance and a contribution to the archive. The remarkably effective way in which [Taylor] combines personal story with analytic reflection is a fitting demonstration of the usefulness that can result from being able to sustain an awareness of one's spatio-temporal role as an observer even as one gets lost in the findings of archival discovery."--Dianna Niebylski, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies

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