As genre films, the Bond movies have been consistently successful since the 1960s, winning the approval of several generations and audiences. They have successfully negotiated changes in film culture finding the right balance between repetition and variation, continuity and change. On the one hand the narrative formula has remained constant: audience have come to expect the familiar situations such as 007’s briefing by M, his visit to Q’s workshop, the seduction of the girl, the first meeting with the villain and the scene where he finally reveals his grand design to Bond. On the other hand, the plasticity of 007 persona has permitted his “migration” into different contexts, reflecting changes in the international geopolitical situation, from the Cold War period to the “new world”. Significantly, the last movie of the series, “Casino Royale”, was the first of the Bond franchise to win authorisation to be screened, uncensored, in China. The aim of the present paper is to analyse to what extent these changes are linguistically represented in the film scripts, with particular reference to the above mentioned cliché-ridden dialogues between characters, in an attempt to demonstrate how the Bond phenomenon, as geopolitical fiction, may be located within its historical, political and social contexts also in a sociolinguistic perspective. Working on a corpora made of the 21 film scripts written for the 007 series so far (1962-2006), I will explore to what extent both stylistic changes in discourse and the use of topical allusions, jokes and puns link Bond persona to actuality, and to what extent his appeal moves from a dimension of parochial Britishness, steeped in the discourse of “Orientalism” (Said 1978), to a “universality” better responding to the challenge of the globalised world.

SHAKEN… AND STIRRED: DIFFERENT DEGREES OF “BONDNESS" THROUGH DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

ATTOLINO, Paola
2009-01-01

Abstract

As genre films, the Bond movies have been consistently successful since the 1960s, winning the approval of several generations and audiences. They have successfully negotiated changes in film culture finding the right balance between repetition and variation, continuity and change. On the one hand the narrative formula has remained constant: audience have come to expect the familiar situations such as 007’s briefing by M, his visit to Q’s workshop, the seduction of the girl, the first meeting with the villain and the scene where he finally reveals his grand design to Bond. On the other hand, the plasticity of 007 persona has permitted his “migration” into different contexts, reflecting changes in the international geopolitical situation, from the Cold War period to the “new world”. Significantly, the last movie of the series, “Casino Royale”, was the first of the Bond franchise to win authorisation to be screened, uncensored, in China. The aim of the present paper is to analyse to what extent these changes are linguistically represented in the film scripts, with particular reference to the above mentioned cliché-ridden dialogues between characters, in an attempt to demonstrate how the Bond phenomenon, as geopolitical fiction, may be located within its historical, political and social contexts also in a sociolinguistic perspective. Working on a corpora made of the 21 film scripts written for the 007 series so far (1962-2006), I will explore to what extent both stylistic changes in discourse and the use of topical allusions, jokes and puns link Bond persona to actuality, and to what extent his appeal moves from a dimension of parochial Britishness, steeped in the discourse of “Orientalism” (Said 1978), to a “universality” better responding to the challenge of the globalised world.
2009
9788861940574
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/2282309
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