Brazil, Blanka and representation in Street Fighter II
The following article is a rarity that perhaps the largest found so far of life blog. Imagine the following: held a cultural event and a student of Arts performs work on behalf of Brazil in video games (so far nothing too unusual), but his choice focuses on Street Fighter II, the game that marked the 1991 season. Impressive, so you can qualify the work outlined by Leandro Viana Villa de Santos, where a brilliant genius shows that representation of Brazil in Street Fighter II Blanka through his character is not simply a random choice and the environment character. These jobs that kick the surface layer, banal and even vulgar (which unfortunately prevails today) to find relevant data and background relations are my weakness. Do not hesitate a minute to translate.
clarify that this paper presents text with a baroque vocabulary, away from everyday life, taking into account the context in which it was submitted (a cultural event in 2006), so have a dictionary at one side would be ideal for higher compression. Yet it is entirely understandable, only parts of it will force you to reread and make a little pause to think and process the message you want to give the author. Anyway I always do my thing: adapt the best way possible for the broadest spectrum of audiences as possible without distorting the message you want to.
From here my applause for Leandro Viana Villa de Santos for his incredible idea and sagacity.
can find the following text in its original language at the following link: Click here
wish you enjoy reading.
II MEETING OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES OF CULTURE
Paper presented at the Second ENECULT - Meeting for Multidisciplinary Studies of Culture held from 03 to 05 May 2006, at the School of Communication / UFBA, Salvador-Bahia-Brasil.
NATIONALITY AT STAKE: THE REPRESENTATION OF BRAZIL STREET FIGHTER II
Villa Leandro Viana Santos
Summary
This work verifies that the characterizations of Brazil and its people, displayed in the video game Street Fighter II (1991) refer to the first performances found in travel narratives of the XVI century on the land that would become known as Brazil and its inhabitants. We show that the imagery captured during the colonial period appears in post-colonial times and still continues to serve similar purposes, create alternatives and fantasizing about the origin of an identity. Street Fighter II not only set a naive game or a form of entertainment, can also be seen as a set of political and economic power among nations, multinationals and markets.
The launch of the best-known work of Yoshiki Okamoto, Street Fighter II (1991), redefined the production of the Media (media by mass) of the game due to the careful creation of his characters. These progressed to more detailed screens and identities and characterized, which are based on factors such as their nationalities. Street Fighter II was the first game to have in their ranks to a Brazilian in his character, Blanka. In addition to their nationality and name as Hispanic, the game has three Americans, two Japanese, two Thais (M. Bison taking one of them), one china, one Soviet, one Indian and one English. Street Fighter II is a tour of the countries of those characters in which the player after choosing one of them happens to deal with the rest. The most peculiar in the game are the representations of these nationalities, especially in the interest of this work, the Brazilian. The prospect of reading to be adapted from the statement of Stuart Hall.
"National cultures are composed not only of cultural institutions, symbols and representations also. A national culture is a discourse of many ways of constructing multiple meanings which influences and organizes our actions and conceptions of ourselves, to produce performances that contribute to the identification and construction of identities. "
In the game each country is presented many times over the number of scenarios compatible with the number of characters, where Brazil has only one. The representative of Brazil is shown with some huts on stilts at the edge of a river, having in his face some " ribeirinhos " (locals), a huge fish, a large cobra coiled around a tree and a person who observes the combat and taking pictures (apparently a tourist). Another national representation also draws attention because of its characterization of India, presented in a temple of the god Ganesha and inhabited by elephants. India and Brazil, former European colonies, classified as third world countries, represent the exotic in the world map, undeveloped places that have no street to street fighting. Apparently no urbanization.
Both representations are quite different from those of Japan and the United States, countries of game producers and major consuming markets. Both are represented by scenarios that, unlike Brazil and India, positively reinforcing their national images.
Japan representation is formed from the scenes of Ryu and Edmond Honda. In the first stage is a wooden floor with traditional buildings in the background, although the idea of \u200b\u200btradition is most evident in the other scenario.
Edmond Honda, Sumo wrestler, traditional and popular sport in Japan, appears in a public bathroom with lots of background images as a samurai, Mount Fuji and Rising Sun flag, symbol of the Japanese Navy was widespread during World War II, banned after Japan's defeat and resumed later. In addition to his stage, Japan is also noticeable in the nipocéntrica perspective on the world map in the game.
U.S. representations are presented from the scenes of Balrog, Ken and Guile. The first takes place in one of the streets of Las Vegas, the entertainment representation related to Show Business (or Business of Entertainment), a component present and constantly asserted in American culture. In the second case, Ken, we see a harbor with boats in the background. The port as a gateway or entry, limit of a nation, is in the imagery captured by the game well protected by the character. The last scenario is that of Guile, a military that faces us in an Air Force base with a huge F-16 and military, two of them are a sexy blonde having fun watching the fight. This scenario reinforces the idea of \u200b\u200bmilitary power the United States, as well as direct representation of the idea of \u200b\u200bfemale sexual figure.
The
national representations in Street Fighter II not only define the scenarios of the game, also the case with the image of the characters. All game characters are sharply characterized in human bodies, with the exception of two, Brazilian and Indian Blanka Dhalsim. These characters are the only representatives of their countries, which in turn represent their national communities, being in the imaginary game of "national bodies" of Brazil and India. Another factor particularly in the characterizations of images of the characters: the likeness of Ryu and Ken, Street Fighter II actors and fighters with identical characteristics, have the same fighting skills. They represent a partnership between Japan and the United States. The similarity of these characters indicia the interest of the producer of the game, Capcom, not to forge a multinational cohesion of a particular nationality, but of different markets. This reinforces the idea of \u200b\u200ba less privileged position in the game of nations not participating in their market.
Dhalsim and Blanka , taking as a parameter to man, have deformed bodies, different representations to be not only alien but also in the pejorative sense. The Indian in the game is a being endowed incredible flexibility in his arms and legs, besides having the ability to spit fire. The Brazilian is instead a bestial creature with green fur, tufts of orange hair, fangs and claws. The two characterizations, the displacement of the bodies of two nations for a different location from that account, bring to mind a way to address well-known domination by colonial countries. In a fragment of chapter three of "The Place of Culture by Homi Bhabha, are the following statements about the process of colonization:
" Building the colonial subject in discourse and the exercise of colonial power through discourse requires an articulation of forms of difference, racial and sexual. This articulation becomes crucial if it is asserted that the body is always simultaneously (even conflicting) enrolled in the economy of pleasure and desire and the economy of discourse, domination and power. "
The objective of colonial discourse is to present the colonized as a population of degenerates with based on racial way to justify conquest and to establish systems of administration and instruction.
The idea of \u200b\u200ba pedagogical task of teaching of otherness as a sense of inferiority, not taken into account in the analysis of the game, remember that the public is youth, still in formation. It is emphasized that the relationship between power and education is not given in a way that causes a situation of discomfort in his audience, even in Brazil, contrary to Placer. On the relationship established between Power and Pleasure, Michel Foucault is explicit in its text "Truth and Power" that:
"What makes power hold, it is accepted, is simply that weighs only power that says 'no' but in fact Creek produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourses; must be regarded as a productive network that passes through the entire social body rather than as a negative instance whose function is repression. "
to this point was a reading of Street Fighter II as something determined by observing the relationships of power and incorporated existing representations. But now interested in looking at discourse which instruments are present and were parents, who were captured in the representations of Brazil and the Brazilian.
characterization of Brazil as a wild place, pervaded by large animals and creatures beastly echoes the first speeches of colonization. The idea that the main images constructed at the beginning of settlement would be replicated to the post-colonial period was raised by Eneida Leal Cunha in his text " Ainda a letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha " . Referring to that letter says:
"Here we find, not the origin of things, literature or the Brazilianness, but certainly some potential early cultural meanings still resonate as a compulsive repetition and permanent, but always distinct from the same scene, or perhaps scenes that are arrays of post-colonial identity. "
The " Caminha Letter " and other texts of the sixteenth century the so-called travel literature, are necessary for these matrices can still be seen if today might be influencing the representation of Brazil in the late twentieth century.
Eurocentric writing these texts are given after the time of migration of the imagination. In the period before the European arrival to the land that became known as America, the great imagination of the fifteenth century Europe was directed toward the Indian Ocean the encircled regions. With time and the consequent knowledge of these places gave way to its demystification. When you reach the American continent, the Europeans brought with them the old imagination, make a change. On that process, Laura de Mello e Souza in the first chapter of his book " The Devil and the Land of Santa Cruz " , we state that:
"In this perspective it seems reasonable to consider that, once known Indian demystified the universe is fantastic and the Atlantic has moved to the analogous role in the imagery of the XV century European, as a last resort outpost of human monster, Paradise Earthly Kingdom of Prester John, perhaps as Fray Vicente del Salvador says that here will lock a fierce battle against the Cross and his Knights. The wonderful thing was destined to occupy the periphery of the known world by the West: the American colonial world would, therefore, the final frontier. "
Thus, directing the idea that migration imaginary contemporary, perceives the Brazilian Amazon as a region little known, appropriate for retention, a possible site for the continuity of what is taken as monstrous, as set out in Street Fighter II. The letter of " Pero Vaz de Caminha " presents a passage relevant to the analysis of non-human images in the representation of Brazil. Referring to the first contacts with the natives of the New World " Caminha " states that:
"They go in good health and hygiene and this seems to me that are more than birds or animals of the forest, (...) because their bodies can not be cleaner, fat and beautiful, and it makes me assume that no houses or shelters where they live. "
In his text, Caminha creates a comparison between him and an animal, initiating a process bestialization and creation of a stereotype. However, the image is that of a docile and domesticated animal, a good representation for an expansionist king. This representation of docility Eden (on Eden) did not last for long, could not bear the tension between self and other self Eurocentric, the margin was seen in more detail (...). Under the new continent began to emerge its specific characteristics, edenización was threatened. New plants strong winds, torrential rains, but mostly men and strange bugs that were not European.
Non-acceptance of cultural differences that eventually became the stories produced by Europeans generate grotesque representations of Native Americans. Are cited as examples two sections of the narrative texts of Pero de Magalhães Gândavo and Jean de Lery.
"In the end these Indians are very cruel and inhumane, they have no mercy: animals live like brutes, without any order or repair (...). All eat human flesh and are among the best dishes that can be (...)."
"Immediately after the death of the prisoner, a woman is placed beside the body and pours a short crying, I mean the way a short cry because this woman (...) feigned laments and tears spilled over her dead husband, but always with the hope of eating a piece. (...).
And then the unbelievable cruelty and give our hunters carrion dogs to make them more fierce, these wild grab their children one after the other and they rub their bodies, arms and legs with blood enemy to make them more courageous. "
Similarly Caminha, Léry Gândavo and compared to native animals, though now in such comparisons are significant traces of aggression. Despite the temporary movement suffered since that time, the representation of native Brazil on the basis of similarities with animals has continued in the discourse of Street Fighter II. Besides not having to physically similar human, unable to speak but growl and roar, Blanka appears in his fighting style some resemblance to animals. The Brazilian bites his rival like a beast, attacking your body rolling as an armadillo and may shock as an eel.
Street Fighter II presents the peripheries of these national bodies deformed to a public that still have their bodies in training molded his speech.
Media In Brazil, the game has rarely been investigated to seek a content of the speeches that can be transmitted in video games, which in general are almost always viewed as mere entertainment media. The recognition in 2004 by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Culture of video games as belonging to the recreational habits of the Brazilians and the incentive to produce games in Portuguese, establishing new official perceptions regarding the above statement as a vehicle for Media national identity.
References
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CAMPOS, Cleiton. Minc press Start en EGM Brazil at 30. San Pablo: Conrad Editora, Septiembre 2004.
CUNHA, Eneida Leal. Although the letter of Pero Vaz de walkers: Quinto Imperio: Revista de Cultura y Lengua Literatures of Portuguese in April. Salvador, Bahia Graphic Company, 1995.p.19.
FOUCAULT, Michel. Truth and Power: Microphysics del Power. Rio de Janeiro: Grail, 1992.
Gandavo , Pero de Magalhaes. Condition y costumbres de los indios en la tierra: Treaty of Brazil de la Tierra, el cual contiene información están of which cosas en este artículo, hecho by Pero de Magalhaes Gandavo.
HALL, Stuart. Las national culture as imagined communities: La identidad cultural en la post-modernity / translation of Tomaz Tadeu da Silva Lopes Louro Guacira 3. ed. Rio de Janeiro: DP & A publisher, 1999.p.50.
LERY , Jean de. Historia de un hecho a la tierra travel to Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: National 1926.
OKAMOTO, Yoshiki Street Fighter II. Capcom, 1991.
PRADO, JF de Almeida. The Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha / critical study of JF de Almeida Prado, text and glossary of Maria Beatriz Nizza da Silva. 4. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Agir, 1990.p.99-100.
SOUZA, Laura de Mello e. The new world between God and the Devil: The Devil in the Land of Santa Cruz, witchcraft and popular religion in colonial Brazil. Companhia as lyrics. p. 25-26.
