Geographies, Genders and Geopolitics of James Bond

Book excerpt: This book discusses the representational geographies of the Bond film franchise and how they inform our reading of 007 as a hero. Offering a new and interdisciplinary lens through which the franchise can be analyzed, Funnell and Dodds explore a range of topics that have been largely, if not entirely, overlooked in Bond film scholarship. These topics include: the shifting and gendering of geopolitical relations; the differing depiction and evaluation of vertical/modern and horizontal/pre-modern spaces; the use of classical elements in defining gender, sexuality, heroic competency, and geopolitical conflict; and the ongoing importance of haptics (i.e. touch), kinesics (i.e. movement), and proxemics (i.e. the use of space) in defining the embodied and emotive world of Bond. This book is comprehensive in nature and scope as it discusses all 24 films in the official Bond canon and theorizes about the future direction of the franchise.