Bernthal Queering Agatha Christie

Revisiting the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-3-319-33533-9
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 308 Seiten

Reihe: Crime Files

This book is the first fully theorized queer reading of a Golden Age British crime writer. Agatha Christie was the most commercially successful novelist of the twentieth century, and her fiction remains popular. She created such memorable characters as Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, and has become synonymous with a nostalgic, conservative tradition of crime fiction. J.C. Bernthal reads Christie through the lens of queer theory, uncovering a playful, alert, and subversive social commentary. After considering Christie's emergence in a commercial market hostile to her sex, in Queering Agatha Christie Bernthal explores homophobic stereotypes, gender performativity, queer children, and masquerade in key texts published between 1920 and 1952. Christie engaged with debates around human identity in a unique historical period affected by two world wars. The final chapter considers twenty-first century Poirot and Marple adaptations, with visible LGBT characters, and poses the question: might the books be queerer?

J.C. Bernthal is a private researcher for a major crime writer. He holds a PhD from the University of Exeter, UK, where he taught English Literature, and is the editor of The Ageless Agatha Christie (2016).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bernthal, J. C

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Acknowledgements;6
2;Contents;8
3;Chapter 1: Introduction;9
3.1;Treatments of Christie to Date;11
3.2;Theory: Evaluation and Overview;17
3.3;Chapter Overview;22
3.4;Notes;26
4;Chapter 2: Constructing Agatha Christie;33
4.1;Introduction;33
4.2;Reading and Writing;36
4.3;Emergence: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920);40
4.4;Parody: The Man in the Brown Suit (1924);47
4.5;Innovation: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926);55
4.6;Persona: Ariadne Oliver;60
4.7;Conclusion;70
4.8;Notes;71
5;Chapter 3: English Masculinity and Its Others;83
5.1;Introduction;83
5.2;Reading Christie, Reading Masculinity;85
5.3;Poirot in Context;90
5.4;The Healthy Englishman and the Oriental Other;100
5.5;Peculiar Young Men;109
5.6;Conclusion;118
5.7;Notes;119
6;Chapter 4: Femininity and Masquerade;129
6.1;Introduction;129
6.2;Reading Christie, Reading Women;131
6.3;Vera Rossakoff;137
6.4;Lady Edgware;142
6.5;Arlena Stuart;154
6.6;Conclusion;159
6.7;Notes;161
7;Chapter 5: Queer Children, Crooked Houses;168
7.1;Introduction;168
7.2;Reading Christie, Reading Families;170
7.3;Incest: Growing Sideways;179
7.4;The Freudian Child;188
7.5;Adoption;197
7.6;Conclusion;206
7.7;Notes;209
8;Chapter 6: Queering Christie on Television;219
8.1;Introduction;219
8.2;Watching Christie, Reading Sex;221
8.3;Straight Poirot in Context;226
8.4;Poirot: Cards on the Table (2006);233
8.5;Constructing Closets in St Mary Meade;241
8.6;Marple: The Moving Finger (2006);247
8.7;Conclusion;255
8.8;Notes;257
9;Chapter 7: Conclusion;268
9.1;Notes;273
10;Bibliography;275
10.1;Primary Sources by Agatha Christie;275
10.2;Secondary Sources Cited;277
10.3;Other Works Mentioned;299
10.4;Archives Cited;301
11;Index;303