Sexuality and Gender in Fictions of Espionage

A re-evaluation of spy fiction that sheds light on how espionage narratives give access to cultural conceptions of gender and sexuality in the period preceding and following the Second World War, this book moves away from masculinist assumptions of the genre, offering an integrative survey of the sexualities on display from important characters across the canon. Topics covered include how authors mocked the traditional spy genre; James Bond as a symbol of pervasive British Superiority; how older female spies act as queer figures that disturb the masculine mythology of the secret agent; and how the clandestine lives of agents described ways to encode queer communities under threat from fascism. Taking stock of spy fiction written by women, female protagonists written by men, and probing the representations of masculinity generated by male authors, this book analyses Ian Fleming's James Bond novels; The Spy Who Came in the Cold, The Ipcress File, and The Little Drummer Girl by John Le Carré (and their adaptations for media); Helen MacInnes's Above Suspicion and Assignment in Brittany; Nancy Mitford's Pigeon Pie; works by Christopher Isherwood and Mick Herron and the television show The Americans.

Examination of these key works allows exploration of the construction and even revision of masculinity, femininity and queer identities, as well as domesticity (itself often a microcosm of the nation) in relation to notions of nationality and the defense work being conducted at crucial historical moments.