Abstract
Theorists of the spy novel have shown that its formulaic plots and interchangeable structural elements have been used as a means of representing the most serious cultural conflicts of our time. Profoundly a creation of the twentieth century, the mechanisms and paraphernalia of the spy genre have registered the tensions between the individual and society engendered by modern life, as well as the struggle between 'us' and 'them' enacted in two world wars and their cold war aftermath. In fact, John G. Cawelti and Bruce A. Rosenberg suggest that the daily lives of contemporary people constantly re-enact the plight of the secret agent, who must move unceasingly back and forth between mutually incomprehensible domains of experience. While in the hands of a Graham Greene or a John le Carré, the traditional situations of espionage may provide ground for sophisticated psychological and cultural analysis, even the two-dimensional characters and stock plots of popular thrillers like the James Bond series can, as Umberto Eco has shown, provide a representation of the conflicts that underlie our society.
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