Agatha Christie Goes to War
- Submitting institution
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Bournemouth University
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 319396
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
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10.4324/9780367855185
- Publisher
- Routledge
- ISBN
- 9780367855185
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Agatha Christie Goes to War emerged from a growing network of Agatha Christie and detective fiction scholars, in which the author played a leading role. As lead editor she conceived the theme and concept of the collection, wrote and distributed the call for papers (encouraging regular conference participants to submit), and selected abstracts for inclusion - choosing topics that usefully combined theoretically informed close textual analysis with a strong awareness of historical and social context and their effects on Christie’s work. Along with her co-editor, she wrote the introduction, which highlights that Christie’s post-war work demonstrates both the resilience of the detective fiction genre, and its adaptability into war writing; with its ellipses, uncertain chronology and authority, and knowing reconfiguration of genre conventions to allow for social and global as well as familial and individual instability. Her individually authored chapter extends the key argument that Christie’s pre-war work has received much more critical attention than what came later, which should be seen as more creative than is often acknowledged. This argument and its focus on previously under-studied post-war texts accord with the focus of the book as a whole. In turn, this means that the volume cumulatively addresses a major gap in research. Many of the essays were first introduced at Agatha Christie conferences, and were specifically invited by the author. She worked closely with contributors, holding two review rounds of each accepted draft, commenting in detail on each iteration of the essays to ensure consistency of tone across a range of perspectives. She was the main liaison with the publisher, and finalised the formatting and index of the volume and thus took full responsibility for production of the whole book.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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