Performance and politics

Abstract

The introduction to the issue ‘Performance Politics: spectacular productions of culture in contemporary Latin America’ looks at how performance practices shape contemporary debates and determine political outcomes in Latin America in the post-dictatorial present.

Keywords:

• Latin America
• performance
• diffuse spectacle
• concentrated spectacle
• dictatorship
• neoliberalism

Notes

^1. Michael Taussig writes, citing Philip Abrams in The Nervous System, 113.

^2. According to Human Rights Watch, Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in the region: ‘Human Rights Watch indicates in its World Report 2012 that Guatemala has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the region (1 January 2012)’ (Refworld 2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diana Taylor

DIANA TAYLOR is Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at New York University and Founding Director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics.