Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence

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Previously considered an avowed nationalist, this book explores how Ian Flemings writings and his representational politics contain an implicit resistance to imperial rhetoric. Through an examination of Flemings Jamaica-set novels Live and Let Die, Dr. No, and The Man with the Golden Gun, as well as the later film adaptations of these novels, Ian Kinane reveals Fleming's deep ambivalence to British decolonisation and to wider Anglo-Caribbean relations. Offered here is a crucial insight into the public imagination during the birth of modern British multiculturalism that encompasses broader links between Fleming's writings on race and the representation of early British-Jamaican cultural relations. By exploring the effects of racial representation in these popular works, Kinane connects the novels to more contemporary concerns regarding migration and the ways in which the misrepresentation of cultures, races, and peoples has led to fraught and contentious global geo-political relations as figured in the fictional icon, James Bond.

Reviews

Ian Kinane offers a thoughtful and thorough consideration of how Ian Fleming, through his Jamaican-set James Bond novels, registered and (re)imagined shifting British-Jamaican relations. With chapters dedicated to Live and Let Die (1954), Dr No (1958), and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), Kinane fleshes out, in fascinating detail, Flemings politics of ambivalence towards the decolonization and ultimate independence of Jamaica. * Lisa Funnell, Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, University of Oklahoma, USA *
Challenging simplistic readings of the representational politics in Ian Flemings works, this excellent book offers a nuanced analysis of racial discourse, colonial ideology and the place Jamaica occupies within the Empire and the British imagination. While the rigorous research underpinning this original study is a timely and much needed addition to the growing field of Bond studies, Ian Kinanes engaging investigation will inspire anyone interested in delving deeper into the complex politics of James Bond. * Dr Monica German, author of Bond Girls: Body, Fashion and Gender *
Ian Kinane's Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence is an intriguing study of the role of Jamaica in Flemings' James Bond novels. It offers a reconsideration of the three Jamaica-based Bond novels - Live and Let Die (1954), Dr. No (1958) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965) - as works that showcase Fleming's own, often conflicted, concern for British-Jamaican relations, rather than novels that merely uphold colonial discourse. As such, Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence fills a void in the existing criticism on Fleming's work, and is a must-read for all scholars working on James Bond, empire, and cultural politics. * Dr Christine Berberich, Reader in Literature, University of Portsmouth *
Ian Kinanes in-depth comparative analysis of the Bond novels set in Jamaica makes significant contributions to scholarship. His work not only reminds us that Jamaica is where Bond is born in 1953, resurrected in 1958, and renewed in the final novel published in 1965. By tracing shifts in Flemings depictions of Jamaica, its people, and its colonial administrators, Kinane illuminates the fraught complexity of Flemings sentiments about Britishness in a modern world marked the empires decline. * Cynthia Baron, Professor of Theatre and Film, Bowling Green State University *
Engaging and provocative... [Kinane's] critical focus enables him to formulate first-rate readings of the global and racial politics of Flemings fiction. * International Journal of James Bond Studies *

Author Bio

Ian Kinane is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Roehampton, UK, where he convenes the MA in Popular Literature and Culture. He is the author and editor of a number of books, including Isnt it Ironic: Irony in Contemporary Popular Culture (2021), Didactics and the Modern Robinsonade (2019), Theorising Literary Islands (2016) and (with Downey and Parker) Landscapes of Liminality: Between Space and Place (2016). He is also the General Editor of the International Journal of James Bond Studies.