https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Index ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:43220 Appointment with Death (1938) poses a challenge to the longstanding critical practice of highlighting Agatha Christie's lack of literary sophistication: her 'workmanlike' style, stereotypical settings, two-dimensional characters and ludic conception of the plot as a game that the author plays with the reader. This challenge is due not only to the Middle Eastern setting or the novel's detailed psychoanalytical reading of domestic abuse, but also, more importantly, to its textual and subtextual debates surrounding truth and justice and the articulation of both through narrative. Based on a detailed textual examination of the novel, drawing in part on Pierre Bayard's 'counterinvestigative' approach to detective fiction, I argue that Appointment with Death presents readers with two competing narratives: Poirot's standard narrative of criminal retribution and a mythical narrative that links the suppression of pre-civilisational savagery to the practice of human sacrifice. As suggested by way of conclusion, this dual narrative structure must be seen as an effect of place, specifically the relocation of an English murder mystery to a Middle Eastern rife with cultural and mythical meanings.]]> Wed 14 Sep 2022 15:22:54 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:36664 Tue 23 Jun 2020 11:12:43 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:32390 Mon 23 Sep 2019 13:35:56 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:24034 Murder on the Orient Express (1934) that highlights how Christie’s novel undermines Poirot’s authority as a detective and thereby also undermines his solution. The essay argues that the dénouement fails to bring about complete transparency and reduce the literary complexity of Christie’s plot.]]> Mon 23 Sep 2019 12:45:11 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:24032 Mon 23 Sep 2019 12:40:35 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:22797 Mon 23 Sep 2019 11:46:46 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:40227 Mon 08 Aug 2022 13:23:34 AEST ]]>