Sports chronicles as a source for literature and football research: a reading of the book Lima Barreto versus Coelho Neto: a literary Fla-Flu, by Mauro Rosso

Abstract

This text reviews the book Lima Barreto Versus Coelho Neto: um Fla-Flu literatura (2010) written by Mauro Rosso, which presents a set of texts by Coelho Neto and Lima Barreto, published in Rio de Janeiro newspapers between 1904 and 1922. In them, we can see how Coelho Neto is an enthusiast of sports, equating the sporting activity with the great sports practices of the ancient Greek world, and how Lima Barreto is averse to the practice, both with regard to his elitist reading of the practice in the early years of the last century, and with regard to the type of violence it generates on and off the field. In addition, this work examines how Lima Barreto, also in his chronicles, thinks about the role of a writer and how the sports chronicles presented in the book can function as a basis for research in the area of literary studies that is linked to literature and football.