Global Agency between Bond and Bourne : Skyfall and James Bond in Comparison to the Jason Bourne Film Series

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung-hoon Jeong
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Cognitive Mapping ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global System ◽  
James Bond ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Film Series ◽  
Survival Test ◽  
Global Agency

Skyfall (2012) signals a crisis in global espionage in a post-9/11 era of schizophrenic digital terror. James Bond and his enemy are both internally excluded from their agency—MI6—and this “abjection” leads to terrorist revenge and sovereign reaffirmation. The latter involves a survival test for 007’s vulnerable body while simultaneously recovering a national identity for the United Kingdom. In this sense, James Bond mirrors Jason Bourne, the ex-CIA agent in the Jason Bourne film series. Bourne undergoes a similar abjection yet becomes neither terrorist nor sovereign but instead a symptom of perpetual mind-games. This chapter compares Bond to Bourne to enable a cognitive mapping of the twenty-first-century espionage genre and its global system of sovereignty and abjection.

scholarly journals Imagining the Foundations of Law in Britain: Magna Carta in 2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-398
Author(s):  
Martin A. Kayman
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Magna Carta ◽  
Iconic Image ◽  
Unwritten Law

The 800thanniversary of Magna Carta offers a study in how the foundations of law have been visualized in the United Kingdom. The fact that the British sense of identity as a free nation has historically been based on its commitment to “unwritten” law means that it lacks a foundational text and has hence traditionally figured the law through a plurality of images without a core. The absence of a singular image on which to focus national identity became acute in the early twenty-first century as the multiplication of sources of legality and justice in a globalized and multicultural world put pressure on the United Kingdom's sense of sovereignty. The tensions manifest in this crisis can be seen across a range of images produced for the anniversary, each bearing different values. Yet the rival narratives are able to coexist in the same commemorative space, their differences subsumed within Magna Carta's status as a postmodern “icon,” the consecration of the reciprocal identification between the protection of liberty and the rule of law. The Article concludes by examining a court battle over land on the borders of the commemorative site, and at another commissioned artwork. Both, in their different ways, bring into view the boundaries and bonds imposed by the rule of law that the iconic image elides.

Brithop

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin A. Williams
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
First Century ◽  
British Society ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Hip Hop Culture ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Twenty First Century

Brithop investigates rap music’s politics in the twenty-first-century United Kingdom. In it, the author argues that this music is partly an extension of, or often a counter to, political discourses happening in other realms of British society. These rappers are essentially responding through rap to mainstream Britain’s political discourses. The rappers in this book critique the United Kingdom’s more conservative narratives, and they express their relationship to Britain in the politically turbulent climate of the new century, providing valuable perspectives which can go unnoticed by those skeptical of or ignorant of hip-hop culture. Through themes of nationalism, history, subculture, politics, humor, and identity, this book looks at multiple forms of politics in rap discourses from Wales, Scotland, and England. It covers selected hip-hop scenes from 2002 to 2017, featuring rappers and groups such as The Streets, Goldie Lookin Chain, Akala, Lowkey, Stanley Odd, Loki, Speech Debelle, Lady Sovereign, Shadia Mansour, Shay D, Stormzy, Sleaford Mods, Riz MC, and Lethal Bizzle. It investigates how rappers in the United Kingdom respond to the “postcolonial melancholia” (Gilroy) of post-Empire Britain. In contrast to more visible narratives of national identity in Britain, Brithop tells a different, arguably more important, story.

scholarly journals An ‘Anti-Sectarian’ Act? Examining the Importance of National Identity to the ‘Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act’

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony May
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Identity ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Football Fans ◽  
Threatening Communications ◽  
Scottish Government

The 2010-11 football season in Scotland was affected by many incidents of violence and threatening behaviour. Fans of the two Glasgow clubs, Celtic and Rangers, were involved in the majority of these incidents. Players and officials of Celtic were targeted by Loyalist terrorists and sent bullets through the post. The Scottish government felt that many of the incidents were motivated by religious, ethnic, and national hatred, and introduced an Act of Parliament in order to tackle the problems that had arisen. The ‘Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act’ came into law on 1 March 2012, representing a governmental judgement that Scottish football is negatively affected by inter-communal tension. The Act criminalises violent incidents and threatening behaviour related to the expression of religious hatred towards football fans, players, and officials. It also explicitly targets expressions of hatred on ethnic and national grounds. This is significant because in the contemporary era, much of what is termed ‘sectarianism’ in Scotland is directly related to national identity, particularly British and Irish identities. The modern iconography of Celtic and Rangers has comparatively little to do with religion, and relates to differing visions of Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the island of Ireland. Incidents that are termed ‘sectarian’ are often best examined through the prism of nationalism, for in contemporary Scotland it is national identity that is most significant to those who perpetrate the actions that the Act seeks to tackle.

Civil society in search of a state: Dublin 1898–1922

Urban History ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
CIARÁN WALLACE
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
City Council ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Government Reforms

ABSTRACT:A municipal boundary dispute between Dublin's nationalist city council and its independent unionist suburbs in the early twentieth century was symptomatic of a much deeper disagreement over national identity within the United Kingdom. Considering urban councils as the link between the state and local civil society (or subscriber democracy), and using theories proposed by Graeme Morton, R.J. Morris and Norton E. Long, along with illustrative contrasts from municipal behaviour in Edinburgh, this article examines these relationships in Edwardian Dublin. It argues that the modernization of Irish municipal government in 1898 empowered Dublin in unforeseen ways. By amplifying existing divergent identities, and providing a platform for the nascent Irish state, municipal government reforms contributed significantly to the break-up of the UK in 1922.

The Grimmness of Contemporary Fairy Tales: Exploring the Legacy of the Brothers Grimm in the Twenty-First Century

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Zipes
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
South America ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
First Century ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South

This chapter explores some of the more salient contemporary Grimm variants, primarily in the fields of literature and poetry that have appeared in North and South America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia during the twenty-first century. The chapter endeavors to choose and discuss works that represent, in the author's opinion, significant artistic contributions to our understanding of the Grimms' folk and fairy tales and are furthermore innovations that seek to alter our viewpoints on how these tales relate to current sociopolitical conditions. Alongside a discussion of these contemporary fairy tales, the chapter also touches upon its use of the terms “Grimmness” and “Grimm.”

The Ties That Bind: Britain’s Use of Scottish Highland Dress

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 240-254
Author(s):  
David Loranger ◽  
Eulanda A. Sanders
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Over Time

For over 300 years, Britain has influenced Scotland’s national identity. Scottish Highland dress, which consists of kilts and tartans has been appropriated, manipulated, and transformed by the British in order to forward political, commercial, and social objectives. Scotland’s national dress has contributed to a more cohesive identity within the United Kingdom. However, available research only examines specific instances of British influence on—and usage of—kilts and tartans. The purpose of this study was to identify and explore a sample of key figures and historical events that illustrate the use of Scottish Highland dress to forward British interests. The researchers triangulated databases and secondary literature along with extant objects and materials, with the aim of developing a more holistic understanding of appropriation, manipulation, and transformation. Findings indicate how the context and usage of Scottish Highland dress was transformed over time.

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