7 replies to this topic

[stromberg]

Just got word that the international conference "The Cultures of James Bond", will be held at Saarland University in Saarbrücken/Germany on 5 - 7 June 2009. Many of you won't be too much excited by this news, but if you care to check my profile on the left, you may notice why it is for me: this takes place on my home turf

Keynote speakers will be Fleming Biographer Andrew Lycett , Christoph Lindner (The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader) and James Chapman (Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films).

Further information (including a call for papers) can be found here: http://www.uni-saarl...staltungen/bond (site is in English), a preliminary programme will be available from January 2009.

[Qwerty]

Now on the CBn main page...

The Cultures Of James Bond Conference

To take place 5-7 June at Saarland University in Saarbrucken/Germany

[MkB]

Looks like there will be some interesting papers, as far as one can say from the titles! Any idea yet if the proceedings are going to be published?

[Revelator]

I certainly hope these are published--these sort of conferences are pretty much the only resources for in-depth, serious discussion of Fleming. For a long while the academic attitude toward Bond was one of dismissal or outright hostility. Now that a younger generation of academics is discovering and explicating the Bond phenomena, we're actually getting intelligent analysis and commentary, even if a lot of it is draped in theoretical gauze. And it's a good bet that this serious, engaged attitude toward Fleming will eventually permeate the mainstream media as well, so that we'll be spared idiotic overviews such as Charles McGrath's NY Times piece, or Simon Winder's less idiotic but equally condescending book.

[stromberg]

Just back from the conference, which was a tremendous success.

3 days of discussing Bond on an acdemical level with interesting topics, lectures and discussions, and of course a lot of nice people there. 29 panels with about 90 participiants from several countries, that was quite a lot, more than the organisers had expected. Which of course means that I'll need a bit of time to write a more detailed report on the event. You can also expect some interviews, in due time.

I certainly learned a lot on Bond, even though there were some things I already knew, or saw dicussed on this very forums.

As to the question asked above wether a publication of the papers and results is intended: the good news is that the answer is 'Yes', the not so good news is that it may take some time. Lots of the material has to be brought into a more 'printable' form, a publisher needs to be found etc,etc.

Greetings to all the people from the conference who find their way to CBn.

[danslittlefinger]

I would love to read those papers. I'm going to try to go to the next one.

[MkB]

Many thanks for the report, Stromberg! I will keep an eye out for the proceedings. It will probably take a couple of years, though, given how demanding is scholarly publication

[stromberg]

... It will probably take a couple of years, though, given how demanding is scholarly publication

Unfortunately, you're right on that. It'll certainly be more than a year until we get to see something.