Autobiographies, outreach and self-help. The discourses of running in contemporary Argentina

Abstract

This article develops an analysis of the hegemonic speeches of running, with special emphasis on the homologies that they keep with various products of the cultural industry, in particular the self-help literature. In order to do that, it is carried out an ethnographic approach to texts that have a wide circulation among the runners, from testimonial and autobiographical books to advertising messages from blogs, announcements of the organizers of the competitions, and profiles on social networks. By means of the analysis of such discursivities it is intended to highlight not only the redundant enunciative strategies and topics of running, but also to recognize a creative hybrid that postulates a defined set of ethical and aesthetic precepts around the option to run, which will be finally defined as a lifestyle and as a therapy of happiness.