Bond and Beyond: The Political Career of a Popular Hero (1987)
James Bond first became established as a popular hero in Ian Fleming's novels in the 1950s and still remains a household name in the 1980s.
Bond and Beyond surveys the scope and reach of Bond's popularity by examining not only the image constructed in the novels and films, but also its reflection in a wide range of other media forms, from the press and fanzines to soft pornography. The book relates his career as a popular hero to the changing cultural, political and ideological concerns of three decades showing how Bond has functioned as a sounding-board for concerns about the decline of Britain, the politics of the Cold War and détente, and the growth of feminism.
As well as treating the Bond phenomenon in its own right Tony Bennett and Janet Woollacott use it as a case study to explore key areas of current debate in cultural studies and literary theory. Bond and Beyond makes an important contribution to the textual and contextual analysis of popular culture.
Authors
Publication History
- New York: Methuen. Hardcover. ISBN 0-416-01351-1
- New York: Methuen. Softcover. ISBN 0-416-01361-9 [archive.org]
Reviews
- Arthur Asa Berger, “Enigmatic 007,” Journal of Communication, Spring 1988, pp. 162–164.
- R. B. Browne, Journal of Popular Culture, no. 2 (1989), p. 179.