The concept of the postmodern seducer: Don Juan or James Bond?

Authors

Keywords:

critical theory, Don Juan, James Bond, seduction

Abstract

The French thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in their theory of the concept claim that every concept is a point of coincidence, or accumulation of its own components, i.e. the other concepts that it consists of. The concept of Don Juan as ‘the archetypal seducer’ has been circulating in Western culture for several centuries. Independently of epoch and national character, therefore, the figure of Don Juan has been a point of coincidence for three important concepts associated with the character: seduction, transgression, and power/domination. The aim of this article is to consider the development of the Don Juan concept in postmodern society. The article suggests that the established Don Juan concept, based on prohibition, became obsolete at the end of the 20th century, and has been replaced by a new seducer figure – that of the film hero James Bond.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Baudrillard, Jean (1985). “The ecstasy of communication”. In: Hal Foster (ed.). The Anti-Aesthetic Essays on Postmodern Culture. 3rd printing. Port Townsend: Bay Press.

Baudrillard, Jean (1990). Seduction. Trans. Brian Singer. London: Macmillan.

Bennet, Tony (1983). “The Bond phenomenon: Theorising a popular hero. James Bond”. Southern Review 16/2: 195-225.

Chapman, Jack (2007). Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films. Second edition. London: I.B. Tauris.

Deleuze, Giles, Guattari, Felix (1994). What is Philosophy? New York: Columbia University Press.

Dodds, Klaus (1 July 2005). “Screening geopolitics: James Bond and the early cold war films (1962–1967)”. Geopolitics 10/2: 266-289.

Eco, Umberto (2014). “Narrative structures in Fleming”. In: Chris Lindner (ed.). The James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader. Second edition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Foucault, Michel (1977). “A preface to transgression.” Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Gies, David T. (1992). “From myth to pop: Don Juan, James Bond, and Zelig.” In: Carla E. Lucente (ed.). The Western Pennsylvania Symposium on World Literatures. Selected proceedings: 1974-1991. A Retrospective. Greensburg, PA: Eadmer Press.

Horkheimer, Max, Adorno, Theodore (2006). Apšvietos dialektika: Filosofiniai fragmentai [Dialectic of Enlightement: Philosophical Fragments]. Vilnius: Margi raštai.

How, Alan (2003). Critical Theory. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wright, Sarah (2012). Tales of Seduction: The Figure of Don Juan in Spanish Culture. London: I. B. Tauris.

Downloads

Published

2016-12-07

How to Cite

Stankevičiūtė, K. (2016). The concept of the postmodern seducer: Don Juan or James Bond?. Beyond Philology An International Journal of Linguistics, Literary Studies and English Language Teaching, (13), 213–237. Retrieved from https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/beyond/article/view/13431

Issue

Section

Culture