Diana Taylor
In The Archive and the Repertoire, Diana Taylor argues that embodied performances play "a central role in conserving memory and consolidating identities,” especially in cultural arenas where these identities and memories have not been committed to the written historical record (xviii). She calls this set of embodied performers the "repertoire" in comparison to the "archive" of objectified artifacts. An insistence on archival research that ignores the knowledge-producing and meaning-making practices of the repertoire is one that relies on, and reproduces, hegemonic world-views to the exclusion of certain people and bodies. The stakes for Taylor are clear: "If performance does not transmit knowledge, only the literate and powerful could claim social memory and identity” (xvii).
