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A STUDY ON THE DETECTIVE STORY
SUMMARY:
I. INTRODUCTION
II. INFO DATA ON DETECTIVE FICTION
1. DEFINITION
1. PATTERN
1. GENERAL TYPES OF DETECTIVE FICTION
1. WHODUNNIT
III. AGATHA CHRISTIE'S:
THE ADVENTURE OF THE EGYPTIAN TOMB
1. SHORT PRESENTATION OF THE PLOT
1. WHY A WHODUNNIT ?
1. NARATIVE TECHNIQUE
1. TITLE AND PLOT
1. TIME AND SETTING
1. CHARACTER BUILDING
1. LANGUAGE AND HUMOUR
IV. FINAL WORD
I. INTRODUCTION
"Agatha Christie is the most widely published writer of any time and
in any language. Only the Bible and the plays of Shakespeare have sold
more edition than the murder mysteries".
One could ask, after reading the fragment quoted, a simple question:
"Why?" and we believe that the answer to this question would make an
eloquent introduction to the present paper.
The XX-th century is coming to an end. Literature worldwide has
experienced all kinds of narrative structures( if we are to refer only
to prose) along the time , from the total omniscience to what was
called "the death of the author". There are literary works which are
not accessible to every one. It is here a question of taste and also
of culture. But the detective fiction has gained so wide an audience
to read and most of all it is entertaining.
Such texts are a challenge for the reader who involves mentally in the
solving of the mysteries.
It is therefore a chance to put your mind to work in a very pleasant
way and it is also everybody's taste of adventure which finds here the
atmosphere needed. Thus detective fiction becomes a refuge in the
every day's agitation and worries, a place full of danger but which is
safer than any other place in the real world. People have the
possibility to test their abilities of reasoning, of anticipating,
inferring, and drawing conclusions in spite of the fact that they have
at their disposal very little material.
So, taking as key concepts some ideas: "adventure", "challenge",
"reasoning", "meeting danger from the safe position of the reader",
"being finally morally rewarded by the punishment of the evil", we can
understand why the detective fiction has so much success since its
first apparition till nowadays.
A very important thing when speaking about detective fiction is the
fact that, in the end, the guilty person(s) is(are) discovered and the
good always wins upon the evil.
We should not forget the fact that, although it first appeared in the
XIX-th century, detective fiction flourished after the two world wars,
perhaps because then people felt the need to revenge the numerous
crimes which had been committed against humanity. The satisfactio |