The WWE, formerly known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), has a long history of showcasing harmful stereotypes via hyperracialized characters. Many academics have observed these characters and the overarching types to which they can be assigned as being indicative of the respective sociohistorical conditions in which they were produced. During the mid-to-late nineties, the WWF embarked upon a re-branding effort focused on adopting a new “Attitude” that purported to offer a more “realistic” form of “sports entertainment.” Throughout this “Attitude Era” the WWF purposely obfuscated delineations between fact and fiction, and subsequently, performers and racialized performance. Set against the backdrop of the neoliberal nineties, then – a period when America was supposedly embracing multiculturalism, the “welfare state” had been discarded in favor of fiscal conservatism, and possessive individualism catapulted to paramount importance – in what ways did the hyperracialized characters and storylines of the WWF Attitude Era reflect contemporary American cultural attitudes toward race? This study seeks to answer this question by incorporating historiographical work, industrial discourse analysis, and textual readings to analyze the representation of race in WWF programming of the late nineties. Utilizing an ideological textual analysis to understand how weekly episodes of Monday Night Raw and monthly pay-per-view events that aired during the years of 1997-1999 embodied and reified certain values, beliefs, and ideas, this project will look to the cultural, industrial, and political discourses circulating during the 1990s to show how they intersect with the WWF programming of the period. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:14:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Anderson Gurgel Campos.pdf: 43705251 bytes, checksum: 51d374f654897ba8ea7c112b3b1d3c21 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research investigates the management of spectacular images of the sport in mega events. The top-level modern sport, the basis of mega sports events, is a source of a complex system of production and image reproduction and social symbols, and of economized images this is, with the accumulation of values and meanings and it is also a bridge between those agents of these types of activities and their audiences, which ultimately reverts to capital and image. This issue becomes more relevant due to the fact that Brazil will host both World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016. The main hypothesis of this doctoral research is that the images that circulate in these sports mega events are organized not in relation to their body related this is, athletes, local or competition but with other images, creating an imagery show that is constructed from an economic principle. This research, which aims to analyze the sport mega-events as media environments, allows us to show that there is an economy, an operating principle between play, sport and mega-events, from images. The reference here is the Greek concept of oikonomia and its derivations in economic theology, which support the idea of an economy of the image, which binds to the organization and management of pictorial resources in the relationship between the man and his imaginary. The objective is to investigate the construction of media environments and test the validity of speaking in the existence of an economy of image of the sport, responsible for the transformation of sports mega-events and their agents in goods of the consumer society. In the concept of game and sport the references are Huizinga and Caillois. For sport, the references are Bourdieu, from the concept of communication in sport, and Wulf and Gabauer on mimesis in the sports game. For concepts of image, event and apparatus, the ideas of Flusser are also crucial. And finally, from Agamben, Mondzain and Polanyi, the concept of economy of images is supported, which allows, in dialogue with the theory of the spectacle, Debord and Iconofagia by Baitello Jr., we can understand the essence of sports consumption in contemporary society / Esta pesquisa investiga a gestão das imagens espetaculares do esporte nos megaeventos. O esporte moderno de alta competição, base dos megaeventos esportivos, é fonte de um sistema complexo de produção e reprodução de imagens e símbolos sociais e é gerador de imagens economizadas ou seja, com acúmulo de valores e significados , e que constroem vínculos entre agentes desses tipos de atividades e seus públicos, o que, por fim, reverte-se em capital e imagem. Esse assunto torna-se mais relevante com a realização no País da Copa do Mundo de 2014 e dos Jogos Olímpicos Rio 2016 no Brasil. A hipótese principal desta pesquisa de doutoramento é a de que as imagens que circulam nesses megaeventos organizam-se não mais na relação com os seus referentes corporais ou seja, atletas, locais ou competições , mas sim com outras imagens, gerando um espetáculo imagético que se constrói a partir de um princípio econômico. Esta pesquisa, que pretende analisar os megaeventos enquanto ambientes midiáticos do esporte, permite mostrar que há uma economia, um princípio operativo entre jogo, esporte e megaeventos, a partir de imagens. A referência aqui é o conceito grego oikonomia e suas derivações na economia teológica, que subsidiam a ideia de uma economia da imagem, que se liga à organização e à gestão dos recursos imagéticos na relação entre o homem e seu imaginário. O objetivo é investigar a construção dos ambientes midiáticos e verificar a pertinência de se falar na existência de uma economia da imagem do esporte, responsável pela transformação de megaeventos esportivos e de seus agentes em mercadorias da sociedade de consumo. No conceito de jogo e esporte, as referências são Huizinga e Caillois. Para esporte, as referências são Bourdieu, a partir do conceito de comunicação no esporte, e Wulf e Gabauer, sobre a mimese no jogo esportivo. Serão também fundamentais os conceitos de imagem, evento e de aparelho de Flusser. E, por fim, a partir de Agamben, Mondzain e Polanyi, alicerça-se o conceito de economia das imagens, o que permite, em diálogo com a teoria do espetáculo, de Debord, e da Iconofagia, de Baitello Jr., entender a essência do consumo esportivo na sociedade contemporânea