Intrigue [[electronic resource] ] : espionage and culture / / Allan Hepburn

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910456172803321
• Autore: Hepburn Allan
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2005
• ISBN: 1-282-43752-6; 9786612437526; 0-300-14848-8
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (1 online resource (xvii, 327 p.))
• Disciplina: 823/.087209091
• Soggetti: Spy stories, English - History and criticism; American fiction - 20th century - History and criticism; English fiction - 20th century - History and criticism; Spy stories, American - History and criticism; Espionage, American - History - 20th century; Espionage, British - History - 20th century; Spy films - History and criticism; Espionage in literature; Spies in literature; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-321) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Spies : a theory of intrigue -- Thrills : fear and catharsis as ideological effects -- Codes : self-evident meaning in narratives of intrigue -- Ghosts : illegitimacy and commitment in Under western eyes -- Sewers : fantasies of death and disgust in The third man -- Collaborations : love and war in The heat of the day -- Walls : The spy who came in from the cold as allegory -- Leaks : fighting the queer cold war in The untouchable -- Disappearances : missing bodies in Sabbatical -- Democracy : the death of a spy.
• Sommario/riassunto: Why do spies have such cachet in the twentieth century? Why do they keep reinventing themselves? What do they mean in a political process? This book examines the tradition of the spy narrative from its inception ; in the late nineteenth century through the present day. Ranging from John le Carré's bestsellers to Elizabeth Bowen's novels, from James Bond to John Banville's contemporary narratives, Allan Hepburn sets the historical contexts of these fictions: the Cambridge spy ring; the Profumo Affair; the witch-hunts against gay men in the civil service and diplomatic corps in the 1950s.Instead of focusing on the formulaic nature of the genre, Intrigue emphasizes the responsiveness of spy stories to particular historical contingencies. Hepburn begins by offering a systematic theory of the conventions and attractions of espionage fiction and then examines the British and Irish tradition of spy novels. A final section considers the particular form that American spy narratives have taken as they have cross-fertilized with the tradition of American romance in works such as Joan Didion's Democracy and John Barth's Sabbatical.