Futebol, imprensa e intelectuais : o projeto político-ideológico de Vargas na construção da identidade nacional (1930-1945)

Abstract

This study provides a historiographical analysis of the political movements involving popular culture and its founding elements during the Vargas Era from 1930 to 1945. The focus of the study is on the process of constructing the politicalideological project mediated by the political intellectuals elected by President Vargas, always opting for individuals with intellectuality and representation in the government. In addition, the analysis encompasses the construction of what we call Brazilianness: the feeling of nationality being restructured in a post-revolutionary period of 1930, when it was necessary to rescue the founding elements and construct new elements to constitute this Brazilianness. To this end, focusing on one of the founding elements of nationalism, we use football as an element of popular culture that is removed from the domain of the Brazilian elite and intellectuals, and promoted to all classes and races of this diverse Brazil that is emerging. According to author Carlos Sandroni, popular culture is not something fixed or essentialist, but rather a social and historical construction that acquires different meanings depending on the contexts in which it is mobilized. (SANDRONI, 2023) Sandroni highlights that popular culture has often been appropriated and reinterpreted by national projects, especially in authoritarian regimes, as a way of legitimizing a homogeneous national identity. At the same time, he shows that this culture is also a field of disputes and resistance, where the working classes assert their own identities. In this process, educational reforms, public policies and civic practices will be constituted, reinforced and interconnected with sport over time. The analysis of football over the period from 1930 to 1945 clarifies many factors about the social imaginary of the time. The methodology used to understand this political-ideological project includes the study of government communication sources that were mediated by intellectuals, the implementation of the Capanema Reform in the areas of education and sports, and finally, discourse analysis using elements of Vargas' discursive ethos in the construction of Brazilian nationality. The investigation begins with the analysis of newspapers of the time and government statements, considering them as discursive practices inserted in a project of ideological consolidation of the Estado Novo. The methodological approach is based on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), proposed by Norman Fairclough (2001), which understands discourse as a social practice and as a constitutive element of power relations and ideological production. In this sense, the press is not treated only as a repository of information, but as an active agent in the (re)production of hegemony, operating in an articulated manner with broader social and political structures. From this perspective, DIP is understood as a state mechanism that uses the media to construct narratives of Brazilianness, order and progress, articulating language, power and national identity.