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Goldfinger's gold standard

Negotiating the economic nation in mid-twentieth century Britain

State University of New York College at Brockport, USA, akarl{at}brockport.edu

`Goldfinger's gold standard' reads the James Bond/007 spy film Goldfinger (1964) to interrogate how economic institutions and ideas shape a British national imaginary during the decolonising mid-century. I argue that Goldfinger answers anxieties about the loss of British `standards' of global authority by economically delimiting the nation and privileging cultural Britishness, at the same time that the film acknowledges the flexibility and the ironies of the Bretton Woods gold standard that is its premise. As such, Goldfinger is prescient about the transactive nature of Britishness and economics alike that are characteristic of life under contemporary global capitalism. I contend that ideas about Britain are conditioned by economic policy, and suggest that the interfaces of economic, national and cultural histories may serve as the basis for further interdisciplinary inquiry. •

Key Words: British cinema • decolonisation • economics • nation state

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