Spy Films and Intellectual Alienation

Abstract

The article analyzes spy films as examples of alienation within modern office life. It shows how intellectual socialization within this type of life can lead to a corruption of a person’s moral capabilities. The article studies this corruption process with a focus on how the moral person, in this case the fictional spy character, uses her intellect in relation to other mental faculties and in relation to the person’s own biographical experience of time. With reference to Plato and Hannah Arendt, the article shows that the professional use of intellect has an active and a passive quality. It is passive in so far as the person acquires it gradually, through training. It is active on the other hand, since the person willingly submits to this training. The moral stakes of these spy narratives thus concerns the choice to become a certain kind of person by subjecting oneself to a certain type of intellectual training. Memory forms an entry into this question of choice in all the examined films, hence memory is also at the centre of my analysis. This psychological mode of interpretation is inspired by Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy of narrative.