Olympic Fascism. The relationship between sports spectacles and mass propaganda

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2020-1417

Keywords:

Fascism; Riefenstahl; propaganda; sports; Olympia; cinema

Abstract

When limiting fascism to a time and often, a country (Germany), it is considered whether its cultural devices and communicational strategies are still valid, not as part of a classical fascism, but instead as functional equivalents that preserve pragmatic features and social conditions. To do this, there is an analysis of the fascist imagery in the documentary Olympia (1938) by Leni Riefenstahl, a film about the sports storytelling besides Nazi propaganda. There is a critical analysis about the concepts of leader and public. The aim is to stablish projections towards other official films of modern Olympic Games to question whether there is a point of contact between the mass culture, fascism and propaganda. The overcoming of the mechanic relationship between the ideas and the image is identified, as well as the propaganda possibilities of aesthetical or documentary codes and the coincidence of fascist and contemporary communication policies.

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Author Biographies

Antonio Méndez-Rubio, Philology, Translation and Communication. University of Valencia. Spain

Today, he is Full University Professor of the area of Theory of Languages and Communication Sciences in Universitat de València. PhD in Hispanic Philology and extraordinary PhD award. He is also graduate in Communication. Visiting Professor of Duke University (USA) and Virginia University (USA). He has also been professor in the ADEIT of Universidad de Valéncia, Universidad del País Vasco/EHU and he is currently professor of the master's degree “Interculturality and human rights” of Universidad Pablo Olavide in Sevilla. He has worked in the research projects Immigration, culture et communication en Méditerranée (Institut Maghreb-Europe /Université Paris 8); Practices, discourses and representations in imageries and development processes (Educational Innovation Project) of Universitat de València; The culture as development resource (Ministry of Science and Innovation). He has published the books: «¡Suban a bordo ! Introducción al fascimo de baja intensidad» (2017), «La desaparición del exterior» (2012), «Perspectivas sobre comunicación y sociedad» (2004), «La apuesta invisible» (2003), «Poesía 68» (2003), «Encrucijadas (Elementos de crítica de la cultura)» (1997), «Hacia una teoría crítica de la cultura» (1999) or «El conflicto entre lo popular y lo masivo» (1995). He has been a member of the Academic Council of the Institute of Gypsy Culture, of the Scientific Council of the Observatory of Cultural Studies of Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo and has been part of the Scientific Committee of the Journal Perspectivas de la Comunicación (Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco – Chile. He has managed the II Seminars of Critique Actuality of the UVEG-Servei d´Extensió Univeristària and co-directed the Iberia Seminar 2002: Globalisation and urban space (The new metropolitan cultures) for the Duke Center for Hispanic Studies/CEU San Pablo.

Javier Lizaga Villarroya, PhD. University of Valencia. Spain

Today he is coordinator of News Programmes of the delegation of Teruel de Aragón TV, public television of the Autonomous Community of Aragon. PhD in Communication by Universitat de Valéncia. Master's degree in Interculturality and Communicational Policies by that university and master's degree in Education, Communication and Culture by Autónoma de Barcelona. He has worked in Onda Cero, Cadena Ser, Heraldo de Aragón and TVE. Researcher about the fascism, propaganda and sports, a theme dealt with in his doctoral thesis. He has presented lectures in the VI Latina Congress of Social Communication (2014), in the XV Congress of Journalism of Huesca (2014), II Congress about Stories of the Crisis of Valparaíso Chile and V Congress of Image, held in Berlin (2014). He has published in the Journal Faro and in the International Journal of Image and collaborates with the cinema notebooks Cabiria. He has been part of the Review Council of Fonseca Journal Communication of Universidad de Salamanca and part of the Peer Committee for the journal Faro of Universidad de Playa Ancha.

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Published

2020-02-26

How to Cite

Méndez-Rubio, Antonio, and Javier Lizaga Villarroya. 2020. “Olympic Fascism. The relationship between sports spectacles and mass propaganda”. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, no. 75 (February):69-96. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2020-1417.

Issue

No. 75 (2020)

Section

Miscellaneous
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