Spying in Gagool’s Cave: James Bond’s Colonial Adventures
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Wieland Schwanebeck
Abstract
This article assesses the colonial legacy in the long-running James Bond franchise. While various Bond scholars have repeatedly stressed the 007 franchise’s indebtedness to the geopolitical coordinates and mentality of 19th century imperialism and to the Victorian era’s ideals of masculinity, this article is the first one to read a Bond film (A View to a Kill, Roger Moore’s final adventure in the role as 007) as an adaptation of a colonialist-era pretext, in this case: H. Rider Haggard’s seminal Africa novel, King Solomon’s Mines (1885). Out of the numerous parallels drawn between both texts, the role of the aged adventurer, the significance of the map and its psychosexual connotations, as well as the nightmarish construction of an animalistic, racialised female Other are highlighted in this reading. It culminates in a brief assessment of the most recent Bond films, as both Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), in spite of some (postcolonial) adjustments, continue to be indebted to an imperialist mental framework.
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© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Overcoming Perpetual Estrangement in Persuasion’s Heterotopia
- Louis MacNeices Autumn Journal als Zeitzeugnis des Krisenherbstes 1938
- Tapestries of Contradiction: A Poststructural Analysis of Lessing’s Martha Quest
- ‘Waywardness’: J. M. Coetzee and the Ethos of Authenticity
- Return of the (non-)Native: Coming Home in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
- Losing One’s Illusions: Affective Sense-Making in Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton and the Popular Media
- Spying in Gagool’s Cave: James Bond’s Colonial Adventures
- Reviews
- Donka Minkova. A Historical Phonology of English. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language – Advanced. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014, xv + 424 pp., £ 24.99 (pb)/£ 70.00 (hb).
- Maria Sutor. Non-native Speech in English Literature. Sprach- und Literatur-wissenschaften 51. München: Utz, 2015, x + 310 pp., 8 illustr., € 49.00.
- Sara M. Pons-Sanz. The Language of Early English Literature: From Cædmon to Milton. Perspectives on the English Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, xviii + 278 pp., £ 22.99.
- John D. Niles. The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066–1901: Remembering, Forgetting, Deciphering, and Renewing the Past. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, xvii + 425 pp., 55 figures, £ 60.00/€ 81.00.
- M. J. Toswell. The Anglo-Saxon Psalter. Medieval Church Studies 10. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014, xvi + 454 pp., 21 figures, € 100.00.
- Judith Kaup. The Old English Judith: A Study of Poetic Style, Theological Tradition, and Anglo-Saxon Christian Concepts. With a Foreword by Hugh Magennis. Lewiston, NY/Queenston, ON/Lampeter: Mellen, 2013, ix + 412 pp., $ 159.95 (hb)/$ 49.95 (pb).
- David Greer. Manuscript Inscriptions in Early English Printed Music. Music and Material Culture Series. Farnham/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015, xv + 206 pp., 36 figures, 8 tables, 84 music examples, £ 60.00.
- Christiane Maria Binder. From Innocence to Experience: (Re-)Constructions of Childhood in Victorian Women’s Autobiography. Schriftenreihe Literaturwissenschaft 90. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2014, 412 pp., € 45.00.
- Stephan Karschay. Degeneration, Normativity and the Gothic at the Fin de Siècle. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, ix + 295 pp., £ 60.00.
- Stephen Ross and Allana C. Lindgren (eds.). The Modernist World. London: Routledge, 2015, 650 pp., € 125.95.
- J. Hillis Miller. Communities in Fiction. Fordham: Fordham University Press, 2015, xiii + 333 pp., 12 illustr., $ 30.00.
- Jeff Thoss. When Storyworlds Collide: Metalepsis in Popular Fiction, Film and Comics. Studies in Intermediality 7. Leiden: Brill/Rodopi, 2015, ix + 194 pp., 34 figures, € 55.00/$ 71.00.
- Ulf Schulenberg. Romanticism and Pragmatism: Richard Rorty and the Idea of a Poeticized Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, vii + 251 pp., € 83.19/$ 95.00.
- Kate Rigby. Dancing with Disaster: Environmental Histories, Narratives, and Ethics for Perilous Times. Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, x + 225 pp., $ 24.50.
- Christine Marks. “I am because you are”: Relationality in the Works of Siri Hustvedt. American Studies – A Monograph Series 244. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 234 pp., € 40.00.
- Books Received
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Overcoming Perpetual Estrangement in Persuasion’s Heterotopia
- Louis MacNeices Autumn Journal als Zeitzeugnis des Krisenherbstes 1938
- Tapestries of Contradiction: A Poststructural Analysis of Lessing’s Martha Quest
- ‘Waywardness’: J. M. Coetzee and the Ethos of Authenticity
- Return of the (non-)Native: Coming Home in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
- Losing One’s Illusions: Affective Sense-Making in Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton and the Popular Media
- Spying in Gagool’s Cave: James Bond’s Colonial Adventures
- Reviews
- Donka Minkova. A Historical Phonology of English. Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language – Advanced. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014, xv + 424 pp., £ 24.99 (pb)/£ 70.00 (hb).
- Maria Sutor. Non-native Speech in English Literature. Sprach- und Literatur-wissenschaften 51. München: Utz, 2015, x + 310 pp., 8 illustr., € 49.00.
- Sara M. Pons-Sanz. The Language of Early English Literature: From Cædmon to Milton. Perspectives on the English Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, xviii + 278 pp., £ 22.99.
- John D. Niles. The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England 1066–1901: Remembering, Forgetting, Deciphering, and Renewing the Past. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, xvii + 425 pp., 55 figures, £ 60.00/€ 81.00.
- M. J. Toswell. The Anglo-Saxon Psalter. Medieval Church Studies 10. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014, xvi + 454 pp., 21 figures, € 100.00.
- Judith Kaup. The Old English Judith: A Study of Poetic Style, Theological Tradition, and Anglo-Saxon Christian Concepts. With a Foreword by Hugh Magennis. Lewiston, NY/Queenston, ON/Lampeter: Mellen, 2013, ix + 412 pp., $ 159.95 (hb)/$ 49.95 (pb).
- David Greer. Manuscript Inscriptions in Early English Printed Music. Music and Material Culture Series. Farnham/Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015, xv + 206 pp., 36 figures, 8 tables, 84 music examples, £ 60.00.
- Christiane Maria Binder. From Innocence to Experience: (Re-)Constructions of Childhood in Victorian Women’s Autobiography. Schriftenreihe Literaturwissenschaft 90. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2014, 412 pp., € 45.00.
- Stephan Karschay. Degeneration, Normativity and the Gothic at the Fin de Siècle. Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, ix + 295 pp., £ 60.00.
- Stephen Ross and Allana C. Lindgren (eds.). The Modernist World. London: Routledge, 2015, 650 pp., € 125.95.
- J. Hillis Miller. Communities in Fiction. Fordham: Fordham University Press, 2015, xiii + 333 pp., 12 illustr., $ 30.00.
- Jeff Thoss. When Storyworlds Collide: Metalepsis in Popular Fiction, Film and Comics. Studies in Intermediality 7. Leiden: Brill/Rodopi, 2015, ix + 194 pp., 34 figures, € 55.00/$ 71.00.
- Ulf Schulenberg. Romanticism and Pragmatism: Richard Rorty and the Idea of a Poeticized Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, vii + 251 pp., € 83.19/$ 95.00.
- Kate Rigby. Dancing with Disaster: Environmental Histories, Narratives, and Ethics for Perilous Times. Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, x + 225 pp., $ 24.50.
- Christine Marks. “I am because you are”: Relationality in the Works of Siri Hustvedt. American Studies – A Monograph Series 244. Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 234 pp., € 40.00.
- Books Received
