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Author Taylor, Diana, 1950- author.

Title Disappearing acts : spectacles of gender and nationalism in Argentina's "dirty war" / Diana Taylor
Published Durham : Duke University Press, 1997
©1997

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 309 pages) : illustrations
Contents 1. Caught in the Spectacle -- 2. Gendering the National "Self" -- 3. Military Males, "Bad" Women, and a Dirty, Dirty War -- 4. The Theatre of Operations: Performing Nation-ness in the Public Sphere -- 5. Percepticide -- 6. Disappearing Bodies: Writing Torture and Torture as Writing -- 7. Trapped in Bad Scripts: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo -- 8. Staging Battles of Gender and Nation-ness: Teatro Abierto 1981 -- 9. Crossing the Line: Watching Violence in the "Other" Country
Summary In Disappearing Acts Diana Taylor looks at how national identity is shaped, gendered, and contested through spectacle and relationship. The specific identity in question is that of Argentina, and Taylor's focus is directed toward the years 1976 to 1983 in which the Argentine armed forces were pitted against the Argentine people in that nation's "Dirty War." Combining feminism, cultural studies, and performance theory, Taylor analyzes the political spectacles that comprised the war - concentration camps, torture, "disappearances"--As well as the rise of theatrical productions, demonstrations, and other performative practices that attempted to resist and subvert the Argentine military
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
Those who challenged the dictatorship, from the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo to progressive theater practitioners, found themselves in what Taylor describes as "bad scripts." Describing the images, myths, performances, and explanatory narratives that have informed Argentina's national drama, Disappearing Acts offers a telling analysis of the aesthetics of violence and the disappearance of civil society during Argentina's spectacle of terror
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-303) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Print version record
Subject Theater -- Political aspects -- Argentina
Argentine drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism
Violence -- Argentina -- History -- 20th century
Disappeared persons -- Argentina
PERFORMING ARTS -- Theater -- General.
HISTORY -- Latin America -- South America.
Argentine drama
Disappeared persons
Politics and government
Theater -- Political aspects
Violence
Drama
Theater
Dictatuur.
Nationalisme.
Vrouwen.
Beeldvorming.
Personnes disparues -- Argentine.
Violence -- Argentine -- Histoire -- 20e siècle.
Théâtre argentin -- 20e siècle -- Histoire et critique.
Théâtre -- Aspect politique -- Argentine.
Politique et littérature -- Argentine.
SUBJECT Argentina -- Politics and government -- 1955-1983. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85007068
Subject Argentina
Argentinien
Argentine -- Politique et gouvernement -- 1955-1983.
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 96022185
ISBN 9780822399285
0822399288