Funes. Journal of narratives and social sciences

Global Maradona: la dimensión narrativa, cultural y mediática

2022-02-15T18:37:37+00:00

Entre todos los campeones de la historia mundial del deporte, es difícil encontrar un personaje a quien se haya reservado una atención publica mas grande de la que obtuvo Diego Armando Maradona. Si en la Argentina y en Nápoles el Pibe de Oro pudo convertirse con facilidad en un icono de la cultura y de la tradición popular, la resonancia de su figura en vida, y el clamor planetario engendrado por su muerte, nos llevan a pensar mas bien en un fenómeno cultural universal, que encuentra ramas, lecturas, aceptaciones de nivel internacional. El número especial que las revistas FUNES y ERACLE (http://www.serena.unina.it/index.php/eracle) proponen en conjunto, tiene por lo tanto como objetivo investigar, en un plano comparativo y según una perspectiva interdisciplinaria, el alcance global, así como local, del fenómeno Maradona.

A hero’s journey: the monomythical narrative of Diego Maradona’s World Cup appearances

2022-02-15T18:37:35+00:00

A genius and cultural figure who transcended the sport he played, Diego Maradona is one of the most important icons of popular football culture. The ‘Pibe de Oro’ attracted attention each time he graced the pitch, perhaps none more so than on the international stage at four World Cup tournaments between 1982-1994. Whilst social science research has failed to unequivocally define the notion of sports heroism, this paper aims to build upon this concept through the lens of a mythical narrative. We will trace Maradona’s World Cup appearances using Joseph Campbell’s narratological theory, the hero’s journey, through the monomyth template of three significant acts: the departure, the initiation and the return. This paper will provide a detailed enquiry into Maradona’s extraordinary skill and achievements, addressing both his World Cup highlights and lowlights for Argentina in an international journey that is unlikely to be replicated.

The televised goodbye to D10s: from the Casa Rosada to our homes

2022-02-15T18:37:33+00:00

A few hours after the announcement of his death, Argentina started a long goodbye to the ‘Pibe de Oro’ (Golden Boy), covered in resignation and sadness. A farewell was organised at the Casa Rosada (presidential house), where citizens could go to bid their last farewell despite Covid restrictions. This article aims to analyse its live TV coverage by the Telenoche program, applying ‘media events’ theory. Such a focus was developed by Dayan and Katz in the communication field and analyses events broadcast as a narrative genre. Organised outside the media, events are planned, previously announced and broadcasted live as an interruption of daily life, against routine TV shows, which have been broadly studied in the academy.

Maradona’s funeral, applying a functionalist paradigm, could serve as a ritual to guarantee social integration and the conciliatory function, at the same time that farewells make us wonder about our past, present, and future as a community.

Diego Armando Maradona: Globalization’s First Sports Superstar

2022-02-15T18:37:30+00:00

Maradona is important because he was the first superstar of an increasingly globalized world and in retirement his reputation only grew as we were able to follow the life and tribulations of the great man in real time—something that was not possible in a pre-globalized era. This paper examines the link between globalization and the status of Maradona as a global icon and argues that a combination of talent, a globally integrated economy, and a public persona that was larger than life, made Maradona the international star he was. This is in contrast to the overwhelming majority of sportsmen and women who lose their public prominence after retirement.

Efecto DAM: Diego Armando Maradona en algunas representaciones literarias.

2022-02-15T18:37:27+00:00

Since its arrival to the shores of the River Plate, football has been an integral part in the construction of Argentine national identity. As Pablo Alabarces states, in the last 30 years social and cultural discourses point to a clear phenomenon: “‘footbalization’, meaning that many aspects of Argentine society are discussed in terms of sport”. During that time, Diego Armando Maradona, symbol of the Argentine national team between 1979 and 1994 has been thrown into the spotlight and cast as a representative of such identity, joining fictional and historical figures such as Martín Fierro, Carlos Gardel, Che Guevara and others. For this article I will study the intersection of football, Maradona, and national identity as seen through the lens of literature (fiction and essay). I will then analyze and interpret the different “construction and de-construction” operations around the player Maradona and what does that mean for the dynamics of national identity as related to football.

Maradona and Utopia: social dreaming and the left (foot).

2022-02-15T18:37:25+00:00

This article discusses the representation of Diego Armando Maradona in popular culture from the perspective of utopian studies. Analysing the Netflix documentary series Maradona in Mexico (2019) and the film Maradona by Kusturica (dir. Emir Kusturica, 2008), in addition to selected examples from Latin American cultural production such as songs and TV programmes, the article maps the utopian tropes that are often associated with the figure of Maradona, generally represented as a saviour of working and popular sectors of society, and as an emancipatory political figure aligned with left-wing regimes in Latin America.

Maradona As A Versatile Media Figure: A Study On Turkish Press.

2022-02-15T18:37:23+00:00

The death of world football legend Diego Armando Maradona was on the top of the agenda of Turkish media as well as all over the world. Maradona has found a place in Turkish society at different times not only as a football player or manager but also as a rebellious, funny, and astonishing figure. This study consists of two parts in total: The first section focuses on media figures in the globalized world and it provides examples of Maradona with Turkey crossroads. Here, it is investigated by which representations the physical existence is established. Although the identity of the players or coaches worked in Turkey, though, points of intersection with Turkey in recent history, have been of crucial importance for the transport of these attributes until today. In the second part of the study, contents published in the Turkish printing press are investigated during their dissemination in the first week after the death of Maradona,. The study is focused on newspapers, columns, and thematic magazines; The memory, evaluation, and exemplification related to Maradona are evaluated by the “content analysis” methods. Findings of the study; Maradona is not only a footballer, but also a powerful figure with an ideological point of view, and is a celebrity personality that has always been curious; they, with the historical intersections corresponding to the projection of the recent history of Turkey and axles, are forming the meaning of the name Maradona. As a result, it can be said that the examined newspapers and magazines published memories by focusing on Maradona’s different identities.

Maradona’s Ghosts and Co.: Narrating Maradona in Argentine Football Literature.

2022-02-15T18:37:20+00:00

When Roberto Santoro wrote Literatura de la pelota (1971) little did he imagined that this book, written from the margins of Argentine literature, would open a new literary path for a considerable number of ‘football writers’ in Argentina and Latin America. In the five decades that followed this seminal work, this genre has continued to grow and diversify. However, one key thematic element that has been periodically revisited in the Argentine context is that of the mythical concept of the pibe as a central reservoir of Argentine footballing identity and the figure of Maradona as its most perfect incarnation. This essay will attempt to, on the one hand, describe and illustrate the pibe-Maradona connection in the context of Argentine Football Fiction and on the other, explain the pivotal role of Maradona and that of his phantasmatic presence as fundamental components to approach this literary subgenre in the Argentine context.

Santa Maradona: agiografia di un calciatore.

2022-02-15T18:37:19+00:00

In 2001, the movie Santa Maradona, directed by Marco Ponti, was released. Its title was taken from the song of the same name by Mano Negra. The movie make no mention of Maradona and this is, paradoxically, the most interesting aspect for an investigation into the role of the Argentinean superstar in the popular imagination, because the simple evocation in the title allows the director to create a paradigmatic link between his characters and a real person who has now become an exemplary character in human comedy, Maradona. Like the saints in the medieval exempla, El Pibe de Oro is the one who falls into sin, but who never ceases to point out an exemplary path of redemption and redemption. This essay proposes to analyse the "secular sanctification" of Diego Armando Maradona, a process of beatification that had already begun during his life and, forcibly, accelerated the day after his death.

The Unlikely Hero. The treatment of Maradona’s Death in American Media.

2022-02-15T18:37:17+00:00

The news coverage of a figure as complex as Maradona reflected his importance as an idolized sports figure, immensely popular despite his tumultuous existence. But media coverage also reflects a sociological view of sports heroes, and especially flawed ones. In this chapter, I look at the coverage of Maradona’s death in the United States, analyzing thirty-four media outlets across platforms. The study shows an informative character when reporting about Maradona, but also a detachment about his figure and legacy. The paper argues that the media analysis reflects the secondary social role of soccer in the United States in comparison with the rest of the world, acknowledging the importance of Maradona, but also viewing him as a foreign idol, and a failed one. We finally argue that Maradona’s history is unparalleled in the American sports landscape, and it is only understood when explored in depth.

Maria Angela Polesana, Tito Vagni (a cura di): L’influenza digitale. Studi, teorie e ricerche

2022-02-15T18:37:15+00:00

Il volume l’Influenza Digitale. Studi, teorie e ricerche si propone con l’intento di indagare quelle nuove figure d’influenza sociale nate grazie ai social media, l’influencer, attraverso le procedure metodologiche descritte da Robert Kozinets nei suoi studi sulla netnografia.