The Intermodernist Poetics of Ian Fleming and Graham Greene

Abstract

This thesis examines Ian Fleming and Graham Greene in relation to the schemata of intermodernism, a critical proposition that situates mid-twentieth century authors of genre fiction as exhibiting unique literary characteristics that separate them from either modernism or postmodernism. In this thesis, Greene’s work will serve as a mirror to Fleming’s, and a comparative reading of both authors not only exposes the previously hidden influences of Greene’s writing on Fleming’s, but also reveals new insights into their personal, professional, and literary relationship. This positioning also buttresses Fleming’s status as an important mid twentieth century writer by pairing him with a more canonical author. This thesis radically reshapes the canon of both Fleming and Greene by elevating their “minor” works of genre fiction, travel writing, short stories, journalism, and unpublished manuscripts to the level of their critically well-regarded novels, as it is in these “minor” texts that one can identify Fleming and Greene as intrinsically intermodernist. The original contribution of this thesis is in its identification of Fleming’s and Greene’s association with, and incorporation of, the movements of modernism, and their intertextuality with other renowned modernist and intermodernist authors such as T. S. Eliot and George Orwell. This thesis thus aims to reject the dismissive critical evaluations of Ian Fleming that have clung to the author for over seventy years, confirm Graham Greene’s position as an intermodernist writer, and add to a growing body of twenty-first century scholarship that argues that both authors require serious reevaluation in the canon of twentieth century literature.

Date of Award	22 Nov 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Roehampton
Supervisor	Ian Haywood (Director of Studies) & Dr. Ian Kinane (Co-Supervisor)