Fintar o destino: between the colonial bond and a postcolonial double-bind

Miranda, Rui

Abstract

The article addresses Fernando Vendrell’s Fintar o destino [Dribbling Fate] (1998) by considering the appropriation of sports by the Portuguese Estado Novo’s colonialist ideology and policies (inspired by Gilberto Freyre’s lusotropicalist theories). In parallel, it highlights the role that football in particular plays in underwriting and simultaneously undermining affective, cultural, and economic bonds and binds between Cape Verde and Portugal, pre- and post-independence. The connections between former colony and metropolis, as viewed through the lens of the increasingly globalized and commercialized world of football, go beyond (post)colonial nostalgia, as sport may be seen — the emergence of neo-colonial patterns notwithstanding — to provide a platform for a reimagining of individual and collective hopes and challenges.

Citation

Miranda, R. (2018). Fintar o destino: between the colonial bond and a postcolonial double-bind. Portuguese Studies, 34(2), 148-166. https://doi.org/10.5699/portstudies.34.2.0148

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 12, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Oct 2, 2018
• Publication Date: Oct 2, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 12, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 3, 2019
• Print ISSN: 0267-5315
• Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 148-166
• Series Title: The cinema of Fernando Vendrell
• Series ISSN: 0267–5315
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5699/portstudies.34.2.0148
• Keywords: Fernando Vendrell, cinema, football, sport, Lusotropicalism.
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1163530
• Publisher URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/portstudies.34.2.0148
• Contract Date: Oct 12, 2018