The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington

I recently visited the Lilly Library http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/ part of Indiana University in Bloomington, as it holds unique items related to James Bond creator, Ian Fleming. The library bought Fleming's book collection shortly after his death in the 1960's: it includes his original copies of the Bond books, complete with handwritten notes. More unique items have been added to this collection over the years including original manuscripts of interviews conducted with Fleming's friends and family. I visited the Lilly Library in the hope of finding out a bit more about the Bond creator and why he wrote about this hero in the way that he did. Certainly the unrelenting excitement which surrounds the character of Bond as he completes his various missions is an experience that was craved by Fleming and my future research may delve into the writer's psyche and the origins of the Bond conventions, which we take as a given today.

South West Popular American Culture Association Conference

On Wednesday 19th February I presented my paper, For Queen and Country: James Bond and National Identity in the Daniel Craig era, as part of the James Bond, Espionage and Eurospy section at the South West Popular American Culture Association Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA - http://southwestpca.org/ 

As well as receiving positive feedback I also had a great time meeting fellow Bond enthusiasts and learning about their research into the field and I am now following the blogs of the panel chairs: Michele Brittany http://spyfi-superspies.blogspot.co.uk/ and Nicholas Diak http://heiligetod.blogspot.co.uk/

I was very honoured to be able to participate in debates about Bond issues with scholars who are in the process of publishing their work in book form or who have already done so, most notably in James Bond in World and Popular Culture: The Films are Not Enough, edited by Robert G. Weiner, with whom I also met. I am now looking to publish the paper I presented so watch this space!

Published work: Nostalgia, Nationalism and Notability: The Success of Skyfall

I am very pleased to be able to provide a link to the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association's (MeCCSA) online Journal, Networking Knowledge, which features my first published piece of work. I presented this research at the annual MeCCSA conference in July 2013 and was very honoured to have it accepted as an article in the Volume 6, No. 4 edition of their journal. It is now available to read at the following link, along with some other fascinating papers from the 2013 conference. I have also included the abstract below:

 

http://ojs.meccsa.org.uk/index.php/netknow/issue/view/32/showToc

 

Nostalgia, Nationalism and Notability: The Success of Skyfall

 

SARAH KELLEY, University of Bristol

ABSTRACT

2012 saw the release of what has since been branded ‘the most successful British film to date’:

Skyfall broke box office records by making £94 million in the first 40 days of its release. The

positive reception from film critics would have undoubtedly gone some way to attracting patrons to

its cinema run, however, the overwhelming commercial success of Skyfall indicates that there were

more hooks at play here, amongst the promotional campaign for the film. This article argues that

strong themes of nostalgia, nationalism and notability (of the cast and crew), present throughout the

marketing and preview literature for Skyfall, played a significant part in generating audience interest

for the film. Through textual analysis of a variety of artefacts circulated in anticipation of the film's

release, this article aims to explore how these three themes engaged with the audience and helped to

ensure a successful box office run for Skyfall.

KEYWORDS

Analysis, film, promotion, Skyfall, success.

SWPACA Conference Schedule Confirmed

I am currently working on a presentation version of my most recent James Bond study into the national identity of Daniel Craig's 007. This is for the SWPACA conference in Albuquerque this February at which I will be speaking in the James Bond, Espionage and Eurospy section. I am very excited about presenting my work to fellow Bond scholars and hearing their research into a similar subject. The conference schedule has now been confirmed: I will be presenting on Wednesday 19th Feb, between 2.45pm and 4.15pm.

http://conference2014.southwestpca.org/ 


Here's hoping my presentation goes down well and that I am, pardon the pun, neither Shaken nor Stirred when all eyes are on me!

Latest Bond Study Completed!

I have just finished writing a dissertation, entitled 'For Queen and Country: James Bond and National Identity in the Daniel Craig Era', which explores the evolution of Bond's Britishness over the course of Daniel Craig's 3 films. I will be presenting this work at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association's annual conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA this coming February.

http://southwestpca.org/

Here is the abstract for this study:

The most recent James Bond adventure, Skyfall (2012), sees Daniel Craig proudly flaunting his character’s British nationality with many a carefully placed union jack, chase scenes on the London Underground and a climax set in the Scottish highlands. A segment of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, involving Craig as Bond and the Queen, had already gone some way in representing Bond’s Britishness even before Skyfall was released. However, not so long ago, in Craig’s debut outing as Bond, Casino Royale (2006), he was defying the British spy protocol, displeasing his nation’s representatives and generally downplaying his nationality. The aim of this paper is to explore why and how the British aspects of James Bond have shifted so dramatically within the Daniel Craig era alone. The research methods, which form this investigation, include looking at marketing and preview literature for all three of Craig’s Bond films in order to identify the themes and values attached to each one. This is followed by textual analysis of the films themselves and a summary of their reception by reviewers. This paper presents and evaluates the findings of this research in order to identify the various factors that have shaped Craig’s Bond’s Britishness and how the relationship between these factors has worked.

The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum

A crucial part of the research material I need for the dissertation I am currently working on was recently collected at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University of Exeter. The museum specialises in film ephemera and artifacts and I was able to view a variety of preview literature and marketing material for all 3 of Daniel Craig's Bond films... my conclusions from this will be explored in my dissertation, to be completed in December.

I also enjoyed viewing some rare gems such as a Sean Connery Bond figurine and a James Bond 007 Secret Service board game from 1965.

Anyone interested in the history of film and film merchandise should pay a visit to this museum. You can use their website to have a look at the items they hold as not everything will be in the display cases. Click on the image below:

Cliche HQ

A friend and fellow academic is launching the final project of her MA tonight: a performance at The Basement, Brighton, incorporating various remade cliches, which will kick start 3 days of interactive cliche-subversion fun!

http://www.brightondigitalfestival.co.uk/events/clichehq/#.Ui8N0RyHf8d 

If you can't get to Brighton you can join in on Twitter and tweet your own remade cliches to @clichehq

In support of this project, I have come up with my own, Bond related of course:

Cliche: After sleeping with the hero, Bond girl #1 is killed

Remake: She comes back from the dead to seek revenge on the 'hero' whose male chauvinism ultimately led to her death