Agatha Christie Investigating Femininity

by Makinen, Merja

• ISBN13: 9781403941718
• ISBN10: 1403941718
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-12-12
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

"Unlike much of the criticism which chooses to focus on a few canonical texts, this detailed textual analysis of Christie's oeuvre demonstrates exactly how quietly innovatory Christie was in relation to gender, beginning in 1920 and concluding in the early 1970s. Makinen questions Christie's reputation as merely a supreme puzzle-plotter, suggesting that her literary innovations in relation to femininity are equally important."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

MERJA MAKINEN is Pricipal Lecturer in English Literary Studies and former Programme Tutor for the M.A. Popular Literary Fictions.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements * Abbreviations * Introduction * CHAPTER ONE: PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS * Christie's Cultural Context * Christie's Critical Reception * CHAPTER TWO: DETECTING DEVIANCY * Tommy and Tuppence Beresford * Hercule Poirot * Ariadne Oliver * Miss Marple * CHAPTER THREE: AVAILABLE FEMINITIES * Intrepid Young Adventurers * Career Women * Women Outside the Familial Norms * New Forms of Domesticity * CHAPTER FOUR: WOMEN BEHAVING BADLY * CHAPTER FIVE: REPRESENTING WOMEN OF VIOLENCE * Contemporary Feminist Thought on Violent Women * Contemporary Reception of Women Who Kill * Christie's Female Murderers * CHAPTER SIX: AN EXAMINATION OF OTHERNESS * Biography * The Western Mediterranean * The Middle East * Jewish and Greek Characterisation * Endnotes * Index

Acknowledgements * Abbreviations * Introduction * CHAPTER ONE: PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS * Christie's Cultural Context * Christie's Critical Reception * CHAPTER TWO: DETECTING DEVIANCY * Tommy and Tuppence Beresford * Hercule Poirot * Ariadne Oliver * Miss Marple * CHAPTER THREE: AVAILABLE FEMINITIES * Intrepid Young Adventurers * Career Women * Women Outside the Familial Norms * New Forms of Domesticity * CHAPTER FOUR: WOMEN BEHAVING BADLY * CHAPTER FIVE: REPRESENTING WOMEN OF VIOLENCE * Contemporary Feminist Thought on Violent Women * Contemporary Reception of Women Who Kill * Christie's Female Murderers * CHAPTER SIX: AN EXAMINATION OF OTHERNESS * Biography * The Western Mediterranean * The Middle East * Jewish and Greek Characterisation * Endnotes * Index