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Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's "Dirty War" Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's "Dirty War". By Diana Taylor. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997; pp. xii + 309. $49.95 cloth, $18.95 paper.
In one sense, Disappearing Acts is a local study; Taylor's main focus is on a distinct historical moment and on a specific geographical region. Disappearing Acts traces and analyzes the multiple ways that performance was utilized during Argentina's "Dirty War" (1976-1983) to both structure and resist a nationalist ideology responsible for one of the most horrific periods in contemporary history. However, Taylor's book-much like her topic-resonates beyond the specificity of its local context. Disappearing Acts will be of interest to all readers curious about the role of theatre and performance in shaping and controlling the social and the political. This is a book that speaks to informed specialists in various fields-Latin American studies, theatre and performance studies, and feminist studies-as well as readers new to the methodologies and bibliographies of these areas. Taylor's impressive interdisciplinary capabilities combined with the rigor of her archival research makes Disappearing Acts an exemplary piece of scholarship.
Taylor discusses a wide range of materials and cultural events: conventional plays staged by Argentina's leading progressive artists, the public spectacles mounted by the military junta, the torture practices of the military regime and the public testimonios that described them, and both the abduction and murder of countless of thousands of Argentines and the demonstrations of las Madres de Plaza de Mayo against this mass disappearance. In each of these cases, Taylor is interested in unpacking the way that Argentine national ideology and identity were formulated and gendered by a historical legacy of "bad scripts." These "bad scripts" (or political...