Help with my dissertation - Bond and East Asia

Nicko1234 · December 2007

Hi there,

I will be writing my university dissertation next year on, 'How has East Asia been depicted in the Bond films?'.

If anybody has any thoughts then I would be grateful to hear them.

In particular I was thinking about stereotypes in the movies, gender roles, differences that have taken place over time due to political reasons etc.

I guess the films I will concentrate on are Goldfinger, YOLT, TMWTGG, AVTAK, TND and DAD. But if anybody can think of any of the other movies or books that I should look at then I'd be happy to hear about them.

Also, if anybody could tell me if there are any good books that have been written about Bond that might help then that would be very useful too.

Thanks in advance.

Brosnan_fan · December 2007

I also recommend you look at Dr. No and (to a slightly lesser extent) LTK.

Jamesbondjr · December 2007

Hi Nicko.

I did a couple of peices on Bond at university in Film class titles were:

“A defiantly grotesque, excessively strong body bears the values of class consciousness, for it is the political meanings of the body that matter. The individual body becomes the class body as the site of the subjection of the proletariat in capitalism: it is therefore appropriate that the physical body, particularly in its grotesque, offensive, dirty aspects, should be become the means of evading, resisting and scandalising that social power.” (Fiske, 1998:97)

Consider the treatment of the body and its relationship to society in a British film text of your choice.
and;
Has the representation of gender, particularly female, in the James Bond films changed over the last 40 years since they began?

Not specifically what your looking for but there might be some points you could use.

If you PM me your email address i'll send them over for you to look at.

JbJ

youknowmyname · December 2007

A definite read would be James Bond and Philosophy: Questions Are Forever. It will give you some philosophical background to Bond and Bondian types. It also has a chapter on Bond and ying/yang philosophy. Although I didn't agree with all of it (philosophically and especially having to do with some of the author's Bond knowledge) it was still an interesting read and well worth your time, here's a link:

http://www.opencourtbooks.com/books_n/james_bond.htm

Bill Tanner · December 2007

Brosnan_fan wrote:

...and (to a slightly lesser extent) LTK.

TLD (Afganistan*), surely?

*Afghanistan. "Whoops, my bad", as I believe the current expression has it. See, Bill Tanner is like so down with the kids.

Bill Tanner · December 2007

...and FRWL (Turkey).

Nicko1234 · December 2007

Brosnan_fan wrote:

I also recommend you look at Dr. No and (to a slightly lesser extent) LTK.

Thanks. The character of Miss Sato will be particularly useful when discussing how the portrayal of female East Asian characters changed over the years.

Thanks to everybody else for the suggestions as well.

I was thinking that the novel Colonel Sun could be useful too? I haven't read it yet but it seems like it may be relevant.

If anybody knows any other good general books about Bond then that would be useful too. They don't have to be massively in depth or analytical as long as they mention these issues a little. I was considering buying the Bloomesbury Pocket Guide to Goldfinger but wasn't sure this would have that much info on the Oddjob character.

Bill Tanner · December 2007

Whoops again... for some reason I thought you said the Middle East.

I'll get my coat...

Help with my dissertation - Bond and East Asia

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