‘Tale Engineering’
Agatha Christie and the Aftermath of the Second World War
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21513111 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gill Plain (0000-0002-3387-4850, University of St Andrews, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 179-199 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Literature & History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0306-1973 • E-ISSN: 2050-4594 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0306197320945945 |
| OpenAlex | W3094057726 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 1 |
The ‘golden age’ of clue-puzzle detective fiction is usually considered to end in 1939 with the outbreak of the Second World War. Yet Agatha Christie, the most high-profile and successful exponent of the form, continued to produce bestselling novels until her death in 1976. This essay examines three novels from the immediate postwar period to consider how she adapted her writing to negotiate a changing world and evolving fashions in genre fiction. Engaging with grief, demobilisation, gender, citizenship and the new fears of the atomic age, Christie proves unexpectedly attentive to the anxieties of a new modernity
Agatha · Art · Art history · Literature · Modernity · Negotiation · Political science · Sociology · World War II · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Crime and Detective Fiction Studies · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law
| Highly cited | No |
|---|