Fut(e)bol: A Cultural History of Soccer

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

O futebol, fútbol, football: The beautiful game, the people’s game, the world’s game. Soccer is the most popular sport on the globe, a massive, international corporate enterprise whose outlays—from player salaries to stadiums—make it by far the biggest business in sport. Soccer is also popular in the other sense, del pueblo, a game played around the world on the smallest pitches imaginable, with improvised nets, bare feet, and any reasonably kickable object standing in as a ball. If sport tells us something about who we are and offers a window into our historical reality, then the massive scope of soccer, perhaps, can tell us something about the world. On the eve of FIFA World Cup 26ä, when the world’s game will be centered in a country that has turned its back on globalization and where the United States, Mexico and Canada will be asked to work together in the name of internationalism, we will take up the modern history of soccer (fútbol, futebol) by focusing on its aesthetics, politics, economics, and interactions with society. Soccer is big enough to comprise the world’s dreams and its nightmares and we will consider its controversies head on: race, gender, class, labor, inequality and social violence will be in play. We’ll also take plenty of time to contemplate the sport as an aesthetic object, and its relations to art, poetry and music. Objects of study include literary and journalistic texts, academic research, and video (films, shows, clips, and so on). This course satisfies electives in both the Spanish major and the Sports, Media and Culture (SMAC) minor. The language of instruction is English. Spanish majors, or students of French or Portuguese, may conduct their assignments in the respective language. Interdisciplinary and comparative work is encouraged.