Sample Syllabus: Theatre and Performance in Latin America: 1960s–present (2011)
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H42.2407.001 (Albert #77087) | Diana Taylor
Mon. 3:30 – 6:15pm | office hrs. Wed. 3-5pm
Spring 2011 | diana.taylor@nyu.edu

This course examines the use of theatre and performance - by the State, by oppositional groups, and by theatre and performance practitioners - to solidify or challenge structures of power. The courselooks at specific examples of how theatre and public spectacles have been used since the 1960s to control or contest the political stage. Starting with the climactic moment of the Cuban revolution, we examine how Latin American playwrights (Enrique Buenaventura, José Triana, Augusto Boal) and collective theatre groups (Yuyachkani, T.E.C.) struggled to transform theatre from an instrument of colonial oppression into an oppositional, at times revolutionary, "theatre of the oppressed." We then look at the military dictatorships of the 1970s-80s, during which Latin American playwrights, performers, and political actors responded to political violence (Griselda Gambaro, Eduardo Pavlovsky). In the 1980s and 90s the convergence of performance and politics takes many forms - from issues of gender, sexuality and race, to neo-colonialism and globalism - as visible in the practices of playwrights and solo performance artists (Maris Bustamante, Diana Raznovich, Jesusa Rodriguez, Denise Stoklos, Astrid Hadad, Petrona de la Cruz Cruz).

Download the pdf readings and syllabus (bilingual)
 Theatre and Performance in Latin America, 1960s to the Present (2011) (132.47 KB)
 Courses: Readings: Theatre and Performance in Latin America from 1960-present - Diana Taylor (Sp11) (65.88 MB)

Class 1, (Jan 24) Introductions

Class 2, (Jan 31) Terminology—theatre, performance

• Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire, Ch. 1, “Acts of Transfer” (pdf)
  Paul Connerton, How Societies Remember, Ch. 3, “Bodily Practices” (pdf)
  Joseph Roach, “Culture and Performance in the Circum-Atlantic World” (pdf)
  Theatre of Crisis, Introduction and Chapter One? (pdf)
  Ngugi wa Thiong’o: “Enactments of Power” (pdf)

Class 3, (Feb 7) Theatre and/of Revolution 

• Greg Grandin’s Empire Workshop
  José Triana, "The Assassins"  ?(Stages of Conflict) 
  Taylor, Theatre of Crisis, Ch. 2 “Theatre and Revolution” (pdf)      
  Brecht, "Short Organum for the Theatre" (pdf)

Class 4, (Feb 14) Theatre of the Oppressed 

• Buenaventura, "Theatre & Culture" and "El arte no es lujo" (pdf)
  Plays: The School Teacher, The Orgy, The Twisted State (Stages of Conflict) Two Performances of Buenaventura's La maestra, directed by Enrique Buenaventura and Jorge Huerta at UC Irvine, 1990
  Taylor, Theatre of Crisis, ch. 5 "Destroying the Evidence: Enrique Buenaventura" (pdf)    
  Boal: Theatre of the Oppressed, and Legislative Theatre  http://hidvl.nyu.edu/video/000540819.html

Saturday, Feb. 19 from 10-4, BOAL WORKSHOP with GEORGE EMILIO SANCHEZ IN PERFORMANCE STUDIES STUDIO, ATTENDANCE MANDATORY.

Feb 21 - HOLIDAY: President's Day

Class 5, (Feb 28) Chile: Art and Resistance (Guest, Marcial Godoy-Anativia) 

1. Browse: CADA, Performance under Pinochet,http://hemisphericinstitute.org/cuaderno/repasos/index.html
   Watch: Videos of CADA acciones http://hemisphericinstitute.org/artistprofiles/index.php?lang=Eng&Artist=cada&Menu=About&Category=Bio
   Read: Lotty Rosenfeld, “Operations,” (in Fusco, Corpus Delecti, 219-20)
   Read: “Estadio Chile” http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/rosenfeld-intro
   Read: Nelly Richard, "Margins and Institutions: Performance of the Chilean Avanzada" (in Fusco, Corpus Delecti, 203-218), 
   Read: Francisco Casas, "Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis" (in Fusco, Corpus Delecti, 221-222)

Class 6, (Mar 7) Theatre and Terror 

1. Griselda Gambaro, “The Camp” / El campo ?(Stages of Conflict)
   Griselda Gambaro, “Information for Foreigners”/ Informacion para extranjeros ?(Stages of Conflict)
   Eduardo Pavlovsky, “Potestad/Impunity” (pdf)
   Ariel Dorfman, “Death and the Maiden” (pdf)
   Taylor, Theatre of Crisis, Ch. 3 “Theatre and Terror”(pdf)

March 14-18 SPRING BREAK

Class 7, (Mar 21) Theatre and Trauma 

1. Read: Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani, “Adios Ayacucho” (in Stages of Conflict)
   Watch: http://hidvl.nyu.edu/video/000540642.html 
   Read: Cathy Caruth, Intro, Trauma: Explorations in Memory, (pdf)
   Read: Dori Laub: "Bearing Witness" (pdf)
   Watch: Mapa Teatro, Testigo de las ruinas: http://hidvl.nyu.edu/video/000549236.html 
   Read: Taylor, "Staging Social Memory: Yuyachkani" (in Archive and Repertoire) (pdf)
   Read: Deborah Poole, Peru: Time of Fear, Intro and Ch. 1

Class 8, (Mar 21) Performance and Truth and Reconciliation (Guest, Kaitlin McNally-Murphy) 

1. Browse: Hemi Performance and Truth and Reconciliation Modulehttp://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/modules/itemlist/category/363-trc-module
   Read: Grandin, Greg. “The Instruction of Great Catastrophe: Truth
   Commissions, National History, and State Formation in Argentina, Chile,
   and Guatemala.” (pdf)
   Read: Angel, Naomi. “Canadian Indian Residential School TRC” (in module)
   Read: Cole, Catherine. “Performing South Africa’s Truth Commission” Excerpts (pdf)

Define Final Project and write short Reflection Piece (post online before the
end of March)–The role of art in a context of criminal politics; the
role of the spectator, by-stander and witness in spectacles of terror or
relevant topic (discuss ideas for project and reflection piece with me
before the end of March).

Class 9, (April 4) Now what? Post Dictatorship Performance in Brazil (Guest, Marcos Steuernagel) 

1. Browse: Hemi Performance and Politics in Brazil Module
   Screening: Clips of recent works by Teatro Oficina, Teatro da Vertigem, Ói Nóis Aqui Traveiz, and Lia Rodrigues Cia. de Danças
   Readings:
   Avelar, Idelber. “The Genealogy of a Defeat.” The Untimely Present: Postdictatorial Latin American Fiction and the Task of Mourning. 39-85
2. Schwarz, Roberto, "Culture and Politics in Brazil, 1964-1969." In Misplaced ideas: Essays on Brazilian culture, 126-159. London; New York: Verso, 1992.
3. Andrade, Oswald de. “Anthropophagy Manifesto”. Available at:http://www.lumiarte.com/luardeoutono/oswald/manifantropof.html (POR);http://www.sibila.com.br/index.php/sibila-english/395-anthropophagic-manifesto (ENG)
   Rolnik, Suely. “The Geopolitics of Pimping,” translated by Brian Holmes, 2006. Available at:http://eipcp.net/transversal/1106/rolnik/en.

Class 10, (Apr 11) Spectacles of Gender and Sexuality 

1. Read: Denise Stoklos, Mary Stuart (Holy Terrors)
   Diana Raznovich, Personal Belongings (Efectos Personales), MaTRIX, Inc (Casa Matriz), plus all readings in Holy Terrors.
   Read/Watch: Mujeres Creando, Interview with Maria Galindo, http://hidvl.nyu.edu/search/?start=0&fq=&q=%22Mujeres+Creando%22&facets=
   Read: Regina José Galindo, http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/galindo-intro

Class 11, (Apr 18) Continued…

• Read/Watch: Jesusa Rodríguez, Primero Sueño (http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/latin-american-theatre-and-performance/primero-sueno)
  for text in Span & Eng and video, and Resistencia creativa, Astrid Hadad, Videos and 
  Read: All related readings from Holy Terrors 
  Read: Costantino, "Visibility as Strategy: Jesusa Rodriguez’s Body in Play" (in Fusco, Corpus Delecti)

 Class 12, (Apr 25) Native Performance and Political Efficacy: New Strategies for the 1990s and the new millennium. 

1. FOMMA, The Demon Nun  (in Stages of Conflict)
   Cynthia Steele, “A Woman Fell Into the River” about FOMMA (pdf)
   Tamara Underiner, “Mas que una noticia: Mayan Theatre in Chiapas.” In Death Defying Acts 
   Teresa Marrero, “Eso Sí Pasa Aqui: Indigenous Women Performing Revolutions in Mayan Chiapas” (inHoly Terrors).
   “Digital Zapatismo,” Jill Lane (pdf)

Class 13 & 14, (May 2, May 9)

• Final presentations and discussion
  
  Expectations
  

The class requires active class participation. Please let me know if you will miss a class. Students will be asked to create a mini webcuaderno as part of their final grade and/or a written paper (10-15), a 5 pg reflection piece (to be posted online before Thanksgiving), photos, bibliographies or other relevant materials. Computer workshops are available to help students prepare for the web components of the course.
Final Projects or Papers Due (10-15 pages due before the end of the semester)
Texts available at Shakespeare and Co. Booksellers:

1.    Stages of Conflict (ed Taylor & Townsend)
2.    Holy Terrors: Latin American Women Perform (Taylor and Costanino)
3.    Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed
4.    Augusto Boal, Legislative Theatre: Using Performance to Make Politics
5.    Coco Fusco, Corpus Delecti
6.    Greg Grandin, Empire's Workshop

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