Football and Literature in South America

This book is the first to undertake a systematic study of the relationship between football and literature across South America. In this region, these two fields enjoy an unusually high profile as the origin of some of the world’s greatest writers and most celebrated footballers. This book explores the convergence of South American football and literature since the first football poem was published in 1899, providing coverage that combines period and country with a series of themes. The contextual material in each chapter allows for a detailed analysis of a series of texts that address key issues in the region’s social and political history. As such, this book provides new understandings of football, literature, and the way in which polemic topics are discussed and negotiated in a South American context.