Bond. James Bond:A Spectre of Man

This article analyses selected motifs from the James Bond series, especially those motifs that refer to the organization Spectre. Kurz shows the workings and mechanisms of popular culture as they undergo a particular condensation in this series that has continued for over fifty years (1962-2015). Bond is chased by the'spectre of convention'on the one hand and by the 'spectre of failure'on the other.Treating the popular films as mirrors of the collective imagination, we can identify contemporary viewers'fears and anxieties. In this perspective the series becomes a lesson in hauntology. It confirms the critical diagnoses of Giorgio Agamben, Franco 'Bifo' Berardi and Jacques Derrida, who have foretold the end of man while pointing out the contemporary reality is a complex of apparitions and spectres.