El espíritu olímpico en Occidente desde sus orígenes en Grecia y los Juegos Olímpicos de Tokio (1964-2021)

Abstract

Given the importance that sport has acquired in today’s society and the futuristic relevance that the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 have achieved, this study proposes to focus on sport and the Olympics as a literary and artistic phenomenon in Japan, analyzing the main connotations of the Japanese imaginary, in contrast to the West. The presentation of the historical-literary layout in relation to the theme of sport and the Olympics throughout the history of literature supposes the verification of the enormous amount of archetypes that can be found in the 21st century. All this highlights, at least qualitatively, the importance of sport as a literary, mythological and artistic subject between 1964 and 2020, period on which we will try to focus our critical and analytical vision, highlighting the main literary skills used to immortalize this world event, ritualized since the Greco-Latin era. We will also carry out an analysis of the literary and philosophical meaning of the Olympics and of the Olympic athlete as a character in Western antiquity and of the Olympics and the athlete in Japanese antiquity, rescuing the ritual and literary evolution until the current century