Saarland University in Germany is hosting "The Cultures of James Bond" international conference in early June...

The Cultures of James Bond Event
30th May 2009

An International Conference at Saarland University - June 5th to June 7th 2009
Since his earliest appearances in print and on the screen, James Bond has become a popular icon and has developed nothing short of his own cultural mythology. His iconic status today may well hide the fact that through the years, “James Bond” has acquired very different meanings in a variety of contexts. He has provided a screen onto which the heterogeneous desires of nationally, culturally and socially diverse readers, viewers and users have been projected. In addition, Bond has long become an academic topic as well, not just in film studies, but also in literary and cultural studies. As a cultural phenomenon entangled in the histories not only of Western cultures since World War II, Bond more than merits a conference as a forum to discuss new approaches and recent revisions.

The conference will be held at Saarland University in Saarbruecken, Germany. Situated on the German-French border, Saarbruecken has good connections to both Frankfurt and Paris by the high-speed ICE train.

Programme Includes:

Keynote Lecture: James Chapman, "The Evolution of Bond; or Five Takes on Casino Royale"

Keynote Lecture: Christoph Lindner, "The Future of James Bond Scholarship: 007’s Nasty Habit of Surviving"

Keynote Lecture: Andrew Lycett, "Making a Painful Split of One’s Life: A Biographer's Reflections
on Ian Fleming in Fiction and Reality"

Panel 1: Bond in Context
Chair: Enno Ruge
1.1 Barbara Korte, "Tough or Tongue-In-Cheek? Performing Bond under Changing Notions of Heroism"
1.2 Cordula Lemke, "Shaken, and not stirred": James Bond's Emotions"

Panel 2: Nationality and Class
Chair: Lena Steveker
2.1 Luc Shankland, "James Bond's National Identity: A Matter of Class"
2.2 Khelifa Ben, Nadja & Jörg Sternagel, "Britishness and Scottish Identity in Early Bond Films: A Postcolonial Reflection"
2.3 Christine Berberich, "In Her Majesty’s Special Service: Bond, Englishness and the Subversion of the Gentleman Ideal"

Panel 3: Formula Fiction?
Chair: Christoph Lindner
3.1 Georgia Christinidis, "Of Human Bondage? Identity, Continuity and Verisimilitude in James Bond and Doctor Who"
3.2 Anthony Metivier, "Is James Bond a Serial Killer?"
3.3 Stephan Laqué, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service? Bond's Integrity"

Panel 4: Intertexts
Chair: Joachim Frenk
4.1 Amy C. Billone, " Live and Let Die: James Bond, Peter Pan, Dorian Gray and the Tragedy of Eternal Youth"
4.2 Joyce Goggin, "Diamonds are Forever and the Vegas Film Genre"

Panel 5: Contemporary Bond
Chair: James Chapman
5.1 Alessandro Catania, "Bond Just Bond: Daniel Craig 007’s (Un)Popular Narratives"
5.2 Abigail De Kosnik, "M Stands for Mother: James Bond and Freudian Family Romance in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace"

Panel 6: Gender
Chair: Arlette Warken
6.1 Dan Ward, "'I Sized You Up The Moment I Saw You': Masculinity and Male Body Objectification in Casino Royale"
6.2 Stefani Brusberg-Kiermeier, "Bond Girls or Bond Women? The Construction of Evil Femininity for the Female Villains in the James Bond Films"

Panel 7: Popular Culture
Chair: Christian Krug
7.1 Monika Seidl, "One Silhouette is not enough: The World of Key Art and James Bond"
7.2 Lena Steveker, "007 meets Van Helsing: James Bond and Neo-Gothic Popular Culture"
7.3 André Nimtz, "All Bonds Unleashed: Musical Bondness and its Functions Within and Beyond the Films"

Panel 8: New Bonds
Chair: Enno Ruge
8.1 Tobias Hochscherf, "From Gentleman Spy to Hardboiled Detective: The Reinvention of James Bond after 9/11"
8.2 Michael Latteck, "Trickling Down: Water Metaphors and Global Economy in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace"
8.3 Keren Omry, "An Authentic Body in Flux: Technology of Reproduction in the New Bond"

Panel 9: Space & Tourism
Chair: Barbara Korte
9.1 Claus-Ulrich Viol, "Quantum of Smoothness. Bond and Spatial Desire"
9.2 Susanne Schmid, "From the Costa del Sol to the Moon: James Bond's Tourist Locations"
9.3 Kirsten A. Sandrock, "Bond's Alter-Ego: Ian Fleming as 007 in Thrilling Cities"

Panel 10: Adaptations
Chair: Joachim Frenk & Christian Krug
10.1 Anette Pankratz, "The Spies Who Spoofed Him: Bond Parodies"
10.2 Hans-Joachim Backe, "Narrative Feedback: The Interplay of the James Bond Franchise and its Successors"
10.3 Sonja Fielitz, "Something is out of Joint: Tracing the Ghosts of Fleming's 'Blofeld Trilogy'"

Workshop I: (with Paul Lumsden) "Teaching James Bond: Dr No"

Workshop II: (with Abigail DeKosnik) "Craig Bond: Masculinities and Action"

Visit the official event website for further information.

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