The writer examines novels by Agatha Christie and Joseph Conrad, and discusses characters and scenes in light of prejudices the authors may have held, bringing as evidence Chinese (non-Western) detective novels.
2,200 words (approx. 8.8 pages), 2 sources, 2001, $ 68.95
Abstract We can also see the kind of xenophobic stereotypes that Christie used when we compare her works to detective fiction taken from an entirely different cultural tradition: When we think about the detective novel, we are most likely to see in our mind's eye Sherlock Holmes's deerstalker cap or hear the Belgian accents of Hercule Poirot. The genre of detective fiction ? with its traditional elements of the seemingly perfect crime, the wrongly accused suspect at whom circumstantial evidence points (in many cases, the bungling of the dim-witted police (in opposition to the cleverness of the private operator), the astonishing powers of observation and superior mind of the detective, and a startling and unexpected denouement (quite likely taking place in a parlor) in which the detective reveals how the identity of the culprit was ascertained ? seems a quintessentially Western concept.
Abstract The paper deals with an analysis of the detective story "Ten Little NIiggers", including character analyses. Theme and symbols in the story are mentioned and explained. The writer answers the question why Christie was and still is so popular, by means of how she attracts the reader. It examies how Christie breaks the rule of a mystery genre and what makes her outstanding detective stories writer.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Agatha Christie: Queen of the Mystery Genre
Body: Analysis of Christie's Rule-breaking Style
Conclusion
Literature List
From the Paper "Agatha Christie as a queen of a mystery genre. What exactly makes Agatha Christie's detective stories popular worldwide? She always manages to keep the reader curious about current events in the story, while giving them a burning desire to solve the mystery and see things come to some sort of resolution. The end of each and every Christie's detective story is so unpredictable, that sometimes one gets mad, angry, or even disappointed with him or herself, wondering why he or she could not discover the answers before they were revealed. This paper will examine the unpredictable, rule-breaking style of Christie, and more specifically, how this style is both important and essential to the success of Christie's mystery novel, Ten Little Niggers."
Abstract This paper looks at the movie "My Left Foot" about Christy Brown who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth and who was born to an archetypal Irish working-class family. The paper relates that the film portrays how Christy, despite his severe disability and impoverished status, displays hope and resilience and how, although he proves himself as an artist and a writer, he is a simple man who craves a normal life.
From the Paper "Despite his ability to produce creative paintings, which were often representative of his tumultuous emotions, Christy was nothing other than a simple boy trapped in the body of a complicated cripple. I do not suspect that Christy experienced depression or self-pity for lack of physical abilities, since he physically adapted well to his surroundings and handicaps. On the contrary, Christy fought his greatest battles in an effort to prove that his dissimilar shell held all of the same ingredients inherent in other human beings. In the end of the film, Christy mentions that he considered calling his memoir "Reminisces of a Mental Defective", a sign of the mental anguish he probably suffered and endured from lack of friends and intimate love. "
Abstract The paper analyzes and reviews "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. The writer suggests that, in the book Christie seems to be commenting not only on the social injustice of the caste system in England, but also on how it is so ingrained in society that everyone adheres to it, no matter what.
From the Paper "The author also shows this in Vera's seemingly compulsive need to let everyone know she is an employee, rather than a guest. She immediately indicates she is a "lesser" being than the guests, and there to serve them, although she does not even know how at the beginning of the story. England's society is based on societal levels and the book helps the reader understand how important they are to English people. Americans may not understand their need to categorize people into societal levels, but at least they will understand how it works a little better by reading this book. It also shows there is something decidedly different about all the guests, which makes the reader want to continue on and discover just what it is."
Abstract This paper attempts to provide a more critical examination of what is meant by nationalism by looking to two works of fiction ? the 1919 Mr Standfast by John Bucan and the 1933 mystery novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Both of these novels develops ideas of nationalism that are rooted in the historical concerns of these moments in time. Both in many ways now seem to us rather quaintly nostalgic. However, it is important to understand how very much the ideas ? and ideals ? of nationalism that are expressed in these two books are still with us today.
From the paper:
"We are currently surrounded with reminders of how the fabric of nationalism is woven: This has, of course, been especially true since the attacks on American on the 11th of September. It has become increasingly difficult to go anywhere now without seeing flags or other forms of patriotism and nationalism. And yet, while the heart may indeed swell at such demonstrations, the current uprising of nationalist sentiment provides a moment not only for us to join together in mutually felt pride in our nation but also to examine precisely what it is that nationalism means."
Abstract This paper looks at theauthor in multiple ways, in terms of discussing in detail the changes Agatha Christie found necessary in order to adapt her short story "Witness for the Prosecution" to a theater format. Various adaptations are analyzed, such as changes in dialogue, point of view, visual characterization aspects and the use of accents.
Abstract This paper discusses in detail the changes Agatha Christie found necessary in order to adapt her short story "Witness for the Prosecution" to a theater format. Various adaptations are analyzed, such as changes in dialogue, point of view, visual characterization aspects, and the use of accents.
Abstract This paper explains that Christie details in his book that a person has difficulty knowing who are the worst criminals, the men and women prisoners or the individuals who run the penal industry. The book details how the United States relies on the criminal justice system to enrich business interests by following the model of corporate America. The disciplinary system is supposedly designed to control so-called dangerous populations that challenge the prevailing social order. It also explains that the criminal network is used more to build economic growth for private concerns than to enhance public safety and well-being.
From the Paper "Profits will be the main motive regardless whether a private firm is an outsource of the government, for building the prisons, supplying the equipment or providing the services, or the firm is the actual organization running the institutions. Naturally, rehabilitating the inmates, lowering the crime rate or incarceration time, or reducing the number of prisoners does not rate as a high priority since each of these individuals represent monetary gain."
Tags: criminology, prison, inmate, crime, safety, well-being, system
This paper discusses the importance of generic competence in understanding Agatha Christie's mystery "Witness for the Prosecution" and Angela Carter's fairy tale "The Tiger's Bride".
Abstract This paper explains that generic competence refers to the ability of the reader to understand the implied language, the setting and the period of time of a specific genre that has its own system of codes, called generic repertoire with which the reader has to be familiar to fully understand the meaning of the story. The author points out that every mystery story, such as Agatha Christie's "Witness for the Prosecution", contains an enigma that must be solved by the protagonist; the reader must have the generic competence to understand all the information that is given by the narrator. The paper relates that the reader's generic competence of the fairy tales includes the knowledge of its origin, characters, moral role and related primary fairy tales; Angela Carter's "The Tiger's Bride" contains a moral role; therefore, the implied reader must look for a message inside the story.
From the Paper ""The Tiger's Bride" has a strong connection to other fairy tales such as "Cupid and Psyche", "Beauty and The Beast" and "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon". The importance of generic competence here is the primary readings of the related fairy tales, in order to be able to see the similarity and difference between them all. In all four stories the most important similarity is that they all involved the sacrificing of a daughter by her father. In "The Tiger's Bride" the father had lost his daughter in a card game and she therefore must go with the beast. There is also the mention of a lamb- " ...where the lion lies down with the lamb" (51), "The tiger will never lie down with the lamb" (64). The implied reader's generic competence relates the lamb with the sacrificing of Isaac in the Bible. Isaac's father, Abraham, was about to sacrifice him to god but in the end he didn't and instead a lamb was sacrificed."
Abstract This paper examines how although both religious drama in Ancient Greece and Medieval England stage dramatic performances around religious festivals, the antique and medieval periods are characterised by radically different scenic conventions. It compares the English "mystery plays" centered around the Feast of Corpus Christi with the Greek mystery plays from the previous millennium which were also based around religious festivals.
From the Paper "The audience would watch from the theatron, a tiered seating area set into the side of the hill with large seating capacities. This brings us to the question of audience experience: how would someone fifty rows up experience the action taking place in the orchestra or on the skena? The first matter is that of acoustics; the structure of the theatre provides for sound to travel to the uppermost rows, ensuring that the audience does not miss the dialogue wherever they sit. Brightly colored costumes, as well as large masks, allow the audience to track the characters easily from large distances, and to tell the difference when the same actor plays multiple characters. "
Abstract This paper reviews and positively critiques Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple", focusing on the character of Miss Marple. The paper demonstrates how, despite being a quiet octogenarian who loves knitting, Miss Marple has the mind of a natural sleuth. After citing several examples from the stories to demonstrate this thesis, the paper concludes that the mysteries are fun, quaint and picturesque, which also inspire a love of the heroine and prove to the reader that crime need not be bloody to be interesting.
From the Paper "This is important because most of the twenty mysteries in The Complete Short Stories revolve around very ordinary settings. The first short stories began at the Tuesday Club, a social club formed by Miss Marple and her fellow old ladies her a small, English country town. The club was originally founded purely for the pleasures of social gatherings-but soon this club's purpose becomes a place of discussion of a variety of mysteries that prey upon the minds and the members of the club."
Abstract The writer of this paper centers on the fields of Far East and Near East art also known as Orientalist art. This paper presents figures and facts pertaining to the genre of Orientalist art from the auction houses of Christie' and Sotheby's as well as others. This well-researched paper discusses the general status of the art industry, while also delving into current trends. This paper examines how the 9/11 terror attacks caused sales and prices in the art industry to drastically fall around the world. This paper discusses the published reports that claim that even prior to 9/11 the art market was showing signs of slowing down. This paper contains published statistics and data pertinent to the art market in general while also presenting 6 illustrated charts and graphs relevant to this particular topic.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
General Art Market Analysis
Orientalist Art Market Analysis
Conclusion
References
From the Paper "Luckily, the art market was able to rebound quite quickly, despite challenges in other sectors. "After the tragedy of September 11th, the art market has consistently trumped the performance of sluggish equities markets" ("Art investment", 2003). For this reason, the art market, in general, has seen a resurgence, despite the downturn attributed to September 11th. However, not all is smooth sailing for the industry. This was evidenced just prior to perhaps one of the largest events in the art market history was the sale of artwork collected by the late Malcolm Forbes. Forbes was an obsessive collector. From Faberge eggs to Orientalist paintings, Forbes collection grew for more than three decades. 361 pieces of art, from this lifetime of collecting went under the hammer at Christie's in London, in 2003."
This paper examines the power of women in "A Proper Goodbye" by Katherine Vlassie, "Suitcase Lady" by Christie McLaren and "The Other Family" by Himani Bannerji.
Abstract The paper looks at how the power of women is constrained in ideological and socio-economic ways in three different stories; "A Proper Goodbye" by Katherine Vlassie, "Suitcase Lady" by Christie McLaren and "The Other Family" by Himani Bannerji. The paper discusses how the women in "A Proper Goodbye" and "Suitcase Lady" seem to have become relatively powerless, while the women in "The Other Family" have successfully resisted the forces seeking to limit their power.
From the Paper "The story The Other Family(1990) looks at how ideology is combined with physical appearances in order to determine what a proper family is. In this story the daughter draws a picture of a family. However, the family she draws is comprised of blond haired, blue-eyed white people. This would not be problematic except for the fact that the narrator's family has dark skin and hair. This leads to a conflict between the mother and the child."
Abstract The movie, "My Left Foot", stars Daniel Day Lewis as the real life Irish cerebral palsy survivor, Christy Brown. Greatly encouraged by his mother, he becomes a noted painted and author. The paper shows how the movie uses Christy's life to bring across the message that even the disabled can succeed in a competitive and often unforgiving society; however, the movie's perspective comes across as idealistic and unattainable. The paper argues that the movie fails to address the fact that not all disabled persons have such special talents as Christy and therefore does not represent the disabled sector of the community correctly.
From the Paper "The other progressive aspect that we have to study from the movie is society. In the movie, society does not reject Christy because of his disability. In real life this factor is rare because the harsh reality is that people will discriminate. During Christy's childhood, the children really enjoyed playing with him, expressing no misgivings, as children might, about playing with a disabled child. The children in the movie never ask or express any curiosity, in regards to Christy's handicap. It's almost as if the producers of this movie try to sugar-wash this aspect in order to convince the audience that society has no problem with the disabled."
From the Paper "Agatha Christie is perhaps the best-known mystery writer in the world, and her novels, short stories, and plays have been translated into numerous languages, reprinted many times, presented on film and television, and remain important and widely read works to this day. She created numerous popular characters, with the two most important of these being the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, and the elderly woman of a small English village who solves crimes because she knows human nature, Miss Marple. Agatha Christie came to typify the English murder mystery of the Golden Age of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and her style and range would have a major influence on the development of the mystery novel in both England and America that continues as writers try either to emulate her or differentiate themselves from her as a way of making their own mark."
