Bodies on the Front Lines: Performance, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Revolutionary feminisms and queer and trans activist movements are traversing Latin America and the Caribbean, with performances and protest actions playing crucial roles in the elaboration, auto-theorization, translation, and reception of feminist, queer, and trans activism. Bodies on the Front Lines explores the geopolitical stakes of examining Latin America and the Caribbean as a heterogeneous site of nations and networks, showcasing the aesthetic, social, and political work of performance in generating and fortifying gender and sexual activism.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 464 pages
Publication date: 30 April 2024
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press

Revolutionary feminisms and queer and trans activist movements are traversing Latin America and the Caribbean, with performances and protest actions playing crucial roles in the elaboration, auto-theorization, translation, and reception of feminist, queer, and trans activism. Movements such as Argentina's NiUnaMenos (Not One Less) have brought together hundreds of thousands of protesters and 'artivists on the streets of major cities in Latin America and beyond to denounce gender violence and demand gender, sexual, and reproductive rights. The volumes contributors draw from rich legacies of theater, performance, and activism in the region, as well as decolonial and intersectional theorizing, to demonstrate the ways that performance practices enable activists to sustain their movements. The chapters engage diverse perspectives from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, transnational Central America, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.

Rather than taking an approach that simplifies complexities among states, Bodies on the Front Lines takes seriously the geopolitical stakes of examining Latin America and the Caribbean as a heterogeneous site of nations and networks. In chapters covering this wide geographical area, leading scholars in the fields of theater and performance studies showcase the aesthetic, social, and political work of performance in generating and fortifying gender and sexual activism in the Americas.

Weight: 758g
Dimension: 152 x 230 x 34 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780472056736