Performance and Memory in Contemporary Latin America

3.0 credits · Undergraduate

How does the body remember the past? In this course, we will take this question as a point of departure to analyze the work of twelve contemporary artists from Latin America whose performances revisit individual, collective, national and global pasts in order to challenge official histories, denounce unspoken violences, and create space of empowerment and healing. As we discuss these performances in dialogue with the work of various critics and theorists, we will consider the potentialities and the limitations of performance, the ethics of reenactment and representation, and the sort of memories and archives we can only access through the body.