The Cultural Life of James Bond : Specters of 007

The release of No Time To Die in 2020 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. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Specters of 007 Part I. Beyond Britain: The Transnational Configuration of the James Bond Phenomenon 1. The Forgotten Bond: The CBS production of Casino Royale (1954) 2. A Socialist 007: East European Spy Dramas in the Early James Bond Era 3. From Indianization to Globalization: Tracking Bond in Bollywood 4. The Dead Are Alive: The Exotic Non-Place of the Bondian Runaway Production 5. Bond Rebooted: The Transnational Appeal of the Daniel Craig James Bond Films Part II. Beyond The Hero: The Cultural Politics of 007 6. Paradoxical Masculinity: James Bond, Icon of Failure 7. Femininity, Seriality and Collectivity: Rethinking the Bond Girl 8. Market Forces: James Bond, Women of Color, and the Eastern Bazaar 9. Shaken, Not Stirred Britishness: James Bond, Race, and the Transnational Imaginary 10. Global Agency between Bond and Bourne: Skyfall and James Bond in Comparison to the Jason Bourne Film Series Part III. Beyond the Films: The Transmediality of the James Bond Franchise 11. James Bond and Art Cinema 12. Branding 007: Title Sequences in the James Bond Films 13. “Unlike Men, The Diamonds Linger:” Bassey and Bond Beyond the Theme Song 14. Skyfall and Global Casino Culture 15. Three Dimensions of Bond: Adaptive Fidelity and Fictional Coherence in the Videogame Adaptations of GoldenEye Index 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.