The Haptic Geographies of James Bond’s Body

Abstract

This chapter explores how James Bond is both conceptualized and depicted as an embodied agent. Bond’s body is complicit with geopolitics, as are the men and women he encounters. This chapter addresses how his body is a territory onto which his missions unfold and focuses on how his body is defined as being fit, sensual, technical, memorializing, and calculating, as well as the ways in which his body changes in accordance with shifting generic and gendered codes in the franchise. Bond might be a ‘blunt instrument’ but he is also capable of being sensuous and affective. He is touch-orientated and his feel for people, objects, and situations is an essential element to this success in a range of sites and spaces, stretching from the bedroom to the most extreme geographical environments.