Brazil

Representations of the sport and the body in the Portuguese literature of the 21st century

Abstract

To the foreign eye, and for centuries, Brazil has been feeding the most diverse range of stereotypes. This article seeks to rescue some scenes and images, taken from Portuguese narratives of the 21st century, which focus on the sporting element and confirm this symbolic construction that Brazil carries. In this sense, from passages referring to sports, in particular football, is intended to discuss cliches that contribute to the reiteration of a preconceived idea of Brazilians as cheerful, unreliable and sporty people. In addition, there is the physical body, inseparable from an active outdoors lifestyle, seen as the object of seduction and often associated with the innate sensuality trait of the Brazilian.