Boundaries and stereotypes (or what is the use of football, if any indeed?)

Abstract

Through an analysis of football, this paper explores the use of stereotypes in narratives dealing with national identity in Argentina and Brazil, on the basis of an earlier study authored by Simoni Lahud Guedes. While the construction of a football identity seems to have been similar to the one achieved by the English, who created the game mastered the field, this paper intends to focus on the border areas, i.e. on the way in which the differences between Argentineans and Brazilians was narrated, and on the use of such stereotypes as tropicalism and Europeism. The said stereotypes –resulting from a colonial look that intends to reduce heterogeneity in order to gain symbolic power, as Edward Said writes regarding orientalismappear to be pregnant and effective, although they need to be deconstructed by the social sciences or else by parodic humor. Published in Sociedad. Social Science Journal, School of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, #22. Buenos Aires Argentina. Translated by Marta Ines Merajver Translation from Sociedad (Buenos Aires) no.22, año 2004