“Playing fairly – the satiric tradition in football fiction from Spanish America”
This talk explores the satirical legacy in the emerging corpus of literary football fiction from Spanish America. By exploring the intersections between satire and the myth of fair play, I establish how, in recent decades, contemporary authors of football literature have been invoking the discerning trepidations articulated by eminent authors Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares and Mario Benedetti through critiques of practices of exclusion, intimidation, corruption and match fixing. In Spanish America, no figure looms larger over the ugly side of the beautiful game than Borges. In addition to co-authoring with Bioy Casares what some consider an emblematic work of anti-football fiction in “Esse est percipi,” Borges allegedly stated publicly, “El fútbol es popular porque la estupidez es popular (football is popular because stupidity is popular)” and “El fútbol es un deporte de imbéciles (football is an imbecile’s sport).” The use of the satiric mode in “Esse est percipi” offers a prophetic critique of the inherent venality of the spectacle of football, which is exemplified by the plethora of present-day corruption scandals surrounding FIFA and its organization of mega events like the World Cup. Borges’ iconoclast and jocular posturing in the 1960s and 1970s helped to cement his anti-football status in the Latin American football imaginary. Several contemporary authors lay bare the incongruences found in the apparent disdain for football culture through satire, while still paying due homage to Borges’ immense literary stature.

Este evento está sendo organizado pelo Laboratório de Estudos do Esporte (LESP/CPDOC-FGV) e Sport – Laboratório de História do Esporte e do Lazer (UFRJ).

Dia 25 de maio de 2017, às 14h.

Praia de Botafogo, n. 190, 10ª andar, Auditório 1014.

Obs: A FGV não permite a entrada de pessoas com bermudas, regatas ou chinelos.