Overview

The release of No Time To Die in 2021 heralds the arrival of the twenty-fifth installment in the James Bond film series. Since the release of Dr. No in 1962, the cinematic James Bond has expedited the transformation of Ian Fleming's literary creation into an icon of western popular culture that has captivated audiences across the globe by transcending barriers of ideology, nation, empire, gender, race, ethnicity, and generation. The Cultural Life of James Bond: Specters of 007 untangles the seemingly perpetual allure of the Bond phenomenon by looking at the non-canonical texts and contexts that encompass the cultural life of James Bond. Chronicling the evolution of the British secret agent over half a century of political, social, and cultural permutations, the fifteen chapters examine the Bond-brand beyond the film series and across media platforms while understanding these ancillary texts and contexts as sites of negotiation with the Eon franchise. Winner of the 2022 Best Edited Collection British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Award.

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9781041187561

Table of Contents

Reviews

The Cultural Life of James Bond's unique array of viewpoints should serve as an inspiration for scholars in the field, while simultaneously offering future researchers a number of alternative angles through which Bond can be interpreted.- James Shelton, International Journal of James Bond Studies, Volume 4, Issue 1, Spring 2021, This new collection gathers together high-quality, well-researched and cogently written chapters, and includes plenty of fresh approaches and new insights from a range of scholars working in complementary fields. [...] Pleasingly arranged and critically astute, the book offers some fascinating new perspectives that extend Bond scholarship. Every 'Bondologist' should own a copy.- Llewella Chapman, Journal of British Cinema and Television, Volume 18, Issue 2, April 2021, One of the permanent gains we owe to new Bond studies is the notion that James Bond is far more mobile a signifier than previous generations of critics imagined. The Cultural Life of James Bond makes an invaluable contribution to this widened view of 007. Situating the films in a range of new contexts, this trove of essays uncovers previously ignored and even unexpected connections between Bond and such phenomena as black casting and performance, postfeminism, modernism, transnational geographies and taste cultures, and the development of film, television, video game, and music industries across the globe. This book doesn't just remind us that Bond matters. It reminds us that Bond scholarship matters. - Colin Burnett, Washington University in St. Louis, author of The Invention of Robert Bresson: The Auteur and His Market (2017), This book brings together a supremely talented group of scholars to interrogate 007 in new and innovative ways. The result is a fresh and timely re-examination of the James Bond phenomenon's complicated relationship with popular culture, global media, and transnational geopolitics. The Cultural Life of James Bond is a must-read for 007 scholars and fans alike. - Christoph Lindner, University College London, editor of The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader (2009) In der Gesamtschau sind es vor allem zwei Aspekte, die die hohe Qualität des Bandes ausmachen: Erstens ist die insgesamt sehr gute Abstimmung und Editierung der Beiträge durch einen Herausgeber zu erwähnen, der ein Kenner der televisuellen und filmischen Aspekte des Themas ist. Zweitens besticht im Gesamteindruck die ausnahmslos sehr hohe wissenschaftliche Qualität der Einzelstudien.- Nicole Falkenhayner, H-Soz-Kult, September 2021

Author Information

Japp Verheul is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Film Studies at the University of Southampton, where his research focuses on the regulation of transnational flows of cultural production in European media industries.

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