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James Bond and Modesty Blaise: Comparing Ian Fleming's and Peter O'Donnell's Literary Creations

The creation of Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise strip cartoon (1963–2001) and book series (1965–1996) took place during – and under the undeniable influence of – the "Bondmania" that swept the world in the 1960s. Still, as a strong, independent, and sexually liberated female hero, Modesty Blaise was in many ways quite new to the early 1960s. Regardless of this, however, she was regarded as a “feminine answer to James Bond”, and this view continues to echo in the writings of many contemporary critics and academics. Comparing Ian Fleming’s original Bond stories and O’Donnell’s books, this article will discuss and question the validity of seeing Modesty Blaise and her world as "derivatives" of Bond. The article pays special attention to the similarities and differences in the skillsets, life histories, and personalities of James Bond, Modesty Blaise, and her trusted companion in arms, Willie Garvin. It also explores the nature of the operations that Bond and Blaise and Garvin undertake; the former as an agent of the British Secret Service, the latter two as independently wealthy "freelancers" or "vigilantes". A closely related issue is the way in which the chiefs of British Intelligence, Fleming’s M and O’Donnell’s Sir Gerald Tarrant, are portrayed in and figure into the narratives. Although Fleming’s influence is clearly present in the first Modesty Blaise stories, the article will argue that the Modesty Blaise and James Bond series have many more dissimilarities than similarities and that the former merits increased academic attention in its own right.

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Before and After <em>For Your Eyes Only</em>: Permanently Reinventing the "Bond Girl" Formula

In the early years of the James Bond franchise, female characters that bucked the “Bond Girl” stereotype of a ditzy, dependent-upon-Bond young woman were few and far between. This changed in 1981, with the release of For Your Eyes Only, a film, which this article will show, permanently altered the “Bond Girl” formula through its four female characters. Tracy di Vincenzo (Diana Rigg), Bond’s deceased wife, is the center of the film’s cold open through Bond’s visit to her gravesite, highlighting her narrative and emotional significance to Bond. Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) is a fully competent woman on a revenge mission following the death of her parents, who saves Bond on multiple occasions. Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson) is a Lolita-like figure that Bond rejects, highlighting for the first time that he has scruples in regard to his choice of women. Countess Lisl von Schlaf (Cassandra Harris) is shown having an intimate and emotional relationship with Bond, seen through Bond’s choice to hold her hand, stay with her long after intercourse, and mourn her following her death. Using close textual analysis, this article demonstrates how these women (and For Your Eyes Only in general) upended the “Bond Girl” formula and pinpoints this film as an integral installment and turning point for the representation of women in this iconic franchise, for the 1980s and beyond.

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Fiona Volpe: A New Perspective on James Bond's Iconic <em>Femme Fatale</em>

While narratives of gender politics and female identity in Western visual culture have become more dynamic with the passage of time, one of the most contentious spheres of discussion in mass media surrounds that of Ian Fleming’s ultimate fictional creation, James Bond. Female sexuality and gender politics in the Bond universe has been robustly, and rightfully, scrutinised by academic and casual spectators for at least 50 of the 70 years since his inception. Yet, one of the most enduring characters in the cinematic canon has not yet been given this discerning treatment, in earnest. Originally called "Fiona Kelly" by screenwriters Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, Fiona Volpe was portrayed by Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi-Solomon in Terence Young’s 1965 film adaptation of Thunderball. In November 2017, I had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Paluzzi-Solomon for a now-abandoned book concept. As one of the few actresses from the Sean Connery-era who are still living, she was remarkably forthcoming regarding her professional and personal experiences on set. Without pride or prejudice, Mrs. Paluzzi-Solomon’s account proved to be not only to be illuminating in and of itself as an interview, but also served as a foundation to better understand the origins, development, and public reception of the gold standard femme fatale of the Bond films. This article will explore the character of Fiona Volpe, her origins, plot function, and legacy, from the unique perspective of the woman who brought her to life.

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"Not Just a Double-O": Shifting Embodiments of Female Heroism in <em>No Time to Die</em>

Like the spiralling title credits of Casino Royale (2006), the representation of women in Bond films has not always followed a linear path. The evolution of female characters has generally been viewed as peaking in the Brosnan-era with the introduction of a stern female M (Judi Dench) in GoldenEye (1995) and the highly skilled Agent Lin (Michelle Yeoh) in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Craig-era films continued to cast Dench, but by SkyFall’s release (2012), M was discarded, and, barring a few exceptions, female representation of Agent Lin’s caliber was replaced with disposable anti-heroines such as Severine (Berenice Marlohe). This article reassesses Craig-era Bond women, specifically in No Time To Die (2021) by focussing on the shifting nature of their embodiment. The depiction of these Bond women and their various lived experiences of womanhood have profound implications for the continuation of the series. The article argues that these female protagonists re-envision the Bond heroine so to as align with feminist movements (such as #MeToo) and themes. Drawing from feminist-phenomenological frameworks rooted in sensory scholarship and Beauvoirean philosophy, this article looks back at previous examples of prominent female spies in the Bond films to determine how the latest film instalment recycles and re-imagines the female action heroine through the body. Loaded with power and independence, these new protagonists function not just as female Double-O's but agentic cinematic characters in their own right.

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Shaken and Stirred: The Crisis of Masculinity in<em> Casino Royale</em>

This article evaluates the literary figure of James Bond as a manifestation and projection of the Masculinity Crisis of the 1950’s white western male. In his first outing in Ian Fleming’s 1953 Casino Royale, Bond functions as a figure of subjectivity-splitting anxiety through whom the Masculinity Crisis is channelled with catastrophic effects for the character’s own sense of self, mirroring wider social fears about changing roles in an increasingly altering post-war society. While a number of scholars increasingly note the utility of masculinity theory in James Bond studies, the origin of the character’s troubled relationship to his own masculine self is yet to be explored in Fleming’s first novel as cinematic critiques take centre stage in analytical discussions. This article argues that the demands of a hegemonic hyper masculinity, combined with the dualistic lifestyle of a spy, see Bond oscillate between "ideal" and "transgressive" versions of masculine embodiment. This is shown to ultimately work to dissociate the character from his own sense of self, propelling him into crisis. It examines three areas of binary conflict: wealth and ruin, virility and castration, and masculinity and femininity, arguing the extreme pressures of each create an unstable, uneasy, and unhealthy masculine entity in need of critical re-examination.

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Reading the Complexity of James Bond's National Identity on Film

Though frequently conceived of as an essentially neo-colonial figure, James Bond’s national identity in the Eon Productions film series is more complex. Rather than solely or even predominantly rooted in the imperial centre of England, Bond frequently emerges from peripheral and ambiguous spaces, whether the marginal within the United Kingdom – Scotland, Wales – or from former colonies, like Ireland or Australia. Of the six men who have portrayed Bond in the series, two are English (Roger Moore and Daniel Craig). The remainder portray Bond as ambiguously English-and-not. All of this comes to the forefront in 2012’s Skyfall, which directly addresses Bond’s national origins. The title refers to Bond’s homeplace: his family’s estate in Scotland. Bond is played here by Craig, an English actor, and the film avoids pinning down when he left Scotland, other than it being after his parents’ death. Because Skyfall has priest holes, this film also frames Bond as explicitly Catholic, further positioning him outside Britain’s imperial centre. Bond’s complex and peripheral national identity complicate postcolonial readings of the films. Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of mimicry illuminates Bond’s doubled existence: when members of a colonised society imitate and take on the culture of the colonisers, the effect is, as Lacan notes, “camouflage ... it is not a question of harmonizing with the background, but against a mottled background, of becoming mottled". In this context, Bond’s role “on her majesty’s secret service” raises questions of complicity, compliance, and the fraught, always incomplete disavowal of Otherness.

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Trouble in Cyprus, Riots in Turkey: Ian Fleming, Propaganda, and "The Great Riot of Istanbul"

This article will analyse British influence campaigns that employed disinformation and propaganda to advance British interests during the Second World War and the early Cold War, with a focus on the role of Ian Fleming. It draws on declassified files at The National Archives in London, primary media sources in English and in Turkish, and secondary published research to help understand the extent to which British objectives were achieved in Turkey and Cyprus by finding common ground with the Turkish government, creating false anti-communist narratives, and turning a blind eye to undemocratic and repressive activity against minorities driven by ethno-nationalist policies of the Turkish Republic. The article will answer the following questions: why did Ian Fleming trivialise a violent pogrom against ethnic-Greeks in Istanbul in 1955 as a spontaneous “riot” (in his Sunday Times report), and as a Soviet plot in From Russia With Love? Did British strategic considerations in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean make them complicit in human rights abuses in Turkey? Did Ian Fleming’s writing help shield the Turkish government from criticism at a time of declining colonial power and ideological Cold War? And finally, how do public perceptions of intelligence that Fleming helped to create serve the interests of modern, authoritarian politics in Turkey?

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