Dozens of distinguished academics are to meet in Paris on a mission to plug a yawning gap in French culture — the study of James Bond.

They will debate such topics as Bond’s influence on the British identity, on capitalism, geopolitics, gastronomy and sexuality. The intellectuals are to attend the three-day conference — organised by the French National Library, the universities of Nanterre and Versailles, and the European Centre for Audiovisual Writing — this month.

The organisers say that they hope to demonstrate that the spy is a legitimate subject for research and that Ian Fleming, his creator, is a notable literary figure. “Despite a few studies, largely Anglo-Saxon, James Bond literature does not seem to have received the scientific attention that it merits,” according to the Centre for Cultural History of Contemporary Societies at Versailles University.

Vincent Chenille, a researcher at the centre, said: “Bond is a cultural phenomenon and it is well worthwhile asking ourselves how this character has managed to cross so many political time zones and remain with us to this day.” He said that there had been only two serious attempts to analyse Bond on continental Europe over the past 50 years. One, Il Caso Bond, included a contribution in 1965 from the respected Italian author Umberto Eco.

The conference will delve further, with, for instance, Luc Shankland, of Nancy University, eastern France, speaking about 007’s “key role” in post-colonial Britain. He says that Bond is the first British hero cast in the Don Juan mould. He claims that the character helped the country’s males to “compensate for national frustration at the loss of colonial territories with the conquest of the feminine sex’s space”.

Alain Brassart, from the University of Lille, northern France, will explain how “the archaic virility of Bond, a personality at once reactionary and rebellious, courteous and misogynist, was able to seduce audiences in the 1960s and today”.

Claire Dixsaut, of the European Centre for Audiovisual Writing, will try to show how Bond — “a true Epicurean” — broke with culinary precedent. “He was the first secret agent to enjoy eating and drinking so much,” she said.

But Mr Chenille said that Fleming was as important as the character he created. “His novels are seen here as the sort of thing you buy in a station while waiting for a train. But they should be treated with more respect than that.

“Most French people discovered James Bond at the cinema and don’t necessarily realise that he was a literary hero first. We want to rectify that.”

Hubert Bonin, of the University of Bordeaux, southwest France, said that Fleming could be compared to the great 19th-century French novelists Honoré de Balzac, Anatole France, Émile Zola and Guy de Maupassant.

Although Bond movies are highly successful in France — Casino Royale has been seen by more than 2.5 million French people and 7.1 million watched Le Monde ne Suffit pas (The World is not Enough) on television last week — Fleming’s novels have rarely entered the bestseller lists.

Mr Chenille said translations had been poor, with publishers struggling over such innuendos as Pussy Galore. “They just left that as Pussy Galore with an explanatory note,” he said.

007's real controller

Casino Royale was the first of 12 Bond novels. There are also nine short stories — and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

John le Carré on Bond: “He’s a sort of licensed criminal who, in the name of false patriotism, approves of nasty crimes”

Fleming on Bond: “Bond is not a hero, nor is he depicted as being very likeable or admirable. He’s not a bad man, but he is ruthless and self-indulgent. He enjoys the fight — but he also enjoys the prizes.”

Sources: Ian Fleming foundation, Ian Fleming Centre, Encyclopeadia Brittanica, BBC,

* Agité mais pas secoué means shaken not stirred

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