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Phd Thesis Shit Version A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/89292 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Deadly Domesticity: Agatha Christie’s ‘Middlebrow’ Gothic, 1930-1970 by Christopher Charles Yiannitsaros A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English and Comparative Literature University of Warwick, Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies June 2016 Deadly'Domesticity:'Agatha'Christie’s'‘Middlebrow’'Gothic,'1930?1970' Contents' Acknowledgements' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 4' Declaration' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 5' Abstract' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 6 ''''''''' Introduction** * * * * * * * * 7' '' ''''''''' Chapter*One*1*Myths*of*Origin:*Agatha*Christie’s*Gothic*Households* The'Crack'in'the'Teacup:'The'Houses'and'Families'of'‘Middlebrow’'' Gothic'' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 40' Unspeakable'Experiences:'The'Family'Romance'of'Sleeping(( Murder'(1976)'' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 52' The'Mythic'Origins'of'the'Book:'Gothic'Form'in'Sleeping(( Murder'(1976)'' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 72' Chapter*Two*1*Village*of*the*Damned:*The*Gothic** Villages*of*Agatha*Christie** ‘Unhomely’'Counties:'Domestic'Space,'Village'Space,'and'the' Facilitation'of'Cruelty'and'Crime' ' ' ' ' ' ' 83' A'Prison'without'Inside'or'Outside:'Gothic'Incarceration'and'' Surveillance'in'The(Murder(at(the(Vicarage'(1930)'and'' The(Moving(Finger'(1943)'' ' ' ' ' ' ' 89' ‘[D]eaths'and'village'customs'and'general'gruesomeness’:'' Christie’s'Dark'Distortions'of'the'‘Great'Good'Place’' ' ' '''''''''''110' Chapter*Three*1*‘[T]here*will*be*gay*doings*in*the*Witches*Meadow* tonight’:*Homosexuality,*Monstrosity*and*the*Sexual*Geography*of*Murder& is&Easy& Writing'and'Reading'at'the'Sexual'Margins:'' Homosexuality'and'the'Gothic'' ' ' ' ' ' '''''''''''125' Known'to'be'Known:'Homosexuality,'Fiction,'and'the'Public'' Imagination,'1920s?1960s'' ' ' ' ' ' '''''''''''129' Queer'Hands:'Mr'Ellsworthy’s'Gothic'Body' ' ''''''' ' '''''''''''143' Frightfully'Queer'Friends'from'London:'Criminally'' Sexual'Bodies'and'the'Escape'from'the'Urban'Labyrinth''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''154' !2 Chapter*Four*1*‘[T]hese*displaced*persons’:*A&Murder&is& Announced*and*the*Gothic*Condition*of*Post1war*England* Out'of'Place,'Out'of'Time:'Fragments,'Displacement,'and'' ‘Uncanny’'Experience' ' ' ' ' ' ' '''''''''''178' This'Servant'Problem:'Gothic'Displacement'and'Post?war'Horror' '''''''''''182' Lady'Audley’s'and'Letitia'Blacklock’s'Secrets:'Re?imagining'Mary'' Elizabeth'Braddon’s'Gothic'in'A(Murder(is(Announced'(1950)'''''''''''''''''''''''''''200' Uneasy'Neighbours:'Warfare'and'the'Exposition'of'the'‘Society'of'' Strangers’'' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '''''''''''221' Chapter*Five*1*A*‘house*that*had*been*put*to*the*wrong*use’:*Elements*of* Brontë*Gothic*in*Agatha*Christie’s*Later*Fiction* Becoming'Gothic:'The'Reception'of'Jane(Eyre'and'Wuthering(( Heights'in'Gothic'Criticism'' ' ' ''' ' ''''''''''''''''''''''227' ‘[A]ll'this'adulation'and'excessive'Brontë'cult’:'The'Brontës'in'' ‘Middlebrow’'and'Popular'Culture,'1920s?1950s' ' ' '''''''''''''''''''''''''237' Devotion'Beyond'Idolatry:'Revising'the'Jane(Eyre'plot'in'' By(the(Pricking(of(My(Thumbs((1968)' ' ' ' ' '''''''''''248' Writing'Her'a'Death:'The'Plight'of'the'Creole'Heiress'in'Dead(( Man’s(Folly'(1956)'' ' ' ' ' ' ' '''''''''''261' Appendix' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '''''''''''288' Bibliography** * * * * * * * ****'''''''290' !3 Acknowledgements Thank you to my supervisor, Emma Francis. I would also like to express my gratitude to Sarah Laycock at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, for her assistance and expertise that made my research at (and on) the Museum such an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. A huge thank you is also due to Kate Williams Courage, the English subject librarian at the University of Warwick, who has put up with my ceaseless book purchase requests and has come up trumps with many of my - sometimes plain weird - research enquiries. The completion of this thesis also owes greatly to all the advice and support given along the way by my friends and colleagues Mary Addyman, Benjamin Fowler, Waiyee Loh, Lisa Robertson, and Laura Wood. I am also eternally grateful for the support of my family. One final thank you is also owed to Alexandra Warwick. Her boundless knowledge of the Gothic and phenomenal, genuinely inspirational teaching - as well as her continued support over the years - in many ways has provided the genesis of the thesis before you now. !4 Declaration I declare that the work included in this thesis is entirely my own. I declare that this thesis has not been submitted for a degree at another university. !5 Abstract This thesis examines the use of the Gothic - genre of literary production deeply implicated with a set of patently middle class anxieties concerning the home - in the ‘middlebrow’ detective fiction of Agatha Christie, particularly within her novels authored in the forty year period between 1930 and 1970. It is argued that there are five different ‘types’ of Gothic at work in Christie’s fiction: the haunted house narrative; the Gothic village; Gay Gothic; Post- WWII Gothic; and Brontë Gothic. This thesis moreover suggests that Christie’s employment and development of these Gothic sub-genres is often achieved via nineteenth-century interlocutors, with Christie’s fiction drawing heavily upon, and in some cases ‘re-imagining’, some of the cornerstones of Victorian Gothic literature. In doing so, this thesis sets out to problematise Alison Light’s famous characterisation of Christie as a ‘modernist […] iconoclast’ whose fiction nonchalantly shatters ‘Victorian images of home, sweet home’. Instead, it is argued that Christie’s use of the Gothic speaks of a relationship with nineteenth-century literary culture which far more complicated: a contradictory interplay of simultaneous desire and distance characteristic of the ‘middlebrow’ fiction produced by women writers of this time. This thesis reads Christie’s use of the Gothic historically, seeking to both firmly situate her work within its contemporary historical contexts - particularly in relation to debates regarding the family, domestic space, and the birth of what Nicola Humble has termed the birth of ‘the new cult of the domestic’ after the First World War - and to elucidate the nineteenth-century contexts which she additionally draws upon. Ultimately, in reading instances of domestic Gothicism as they occur across her oeuvre, this thesis makes a case for the valuable historically-specific cultural critiques made by one who, at least in the popular imagination, is positioned as such an avowedly ‘conservative’ writer. !6 Introduction* It'may'be'useful'to'begin'with'what'this'thesis'is'not'about.'It'is'not'about'the' petals' of' the' geranium' elowers' on' a' neurotic' woman’s' bedroom' wallpaper' magically' transforming' from' a' mimetic' scarlet' to' a' horticulturally' impossible' cobalt,' shocking' the' woman' into' an' early' grave.1'Nor'is'it'about'a'session'of' table?turning' that' correctly' announces' to' those' gathered' on' that' winter’s' evening'of'the'murder'of'a'man'living'some'six'miles'away'in'another'town.2'It' also'is'not'particularly'concerned'with'three'witches'dwelling'in'a'former'inn' with'‘a'mysterious'and'unusually'wicked'past'history’,3'who'can'be'persuaded,' for'a'fee,'to'use'their'dastardly'powers'to'remotely'dispatch'anyone'you'require.' It'is,'however,'about'Agatha'Christie'and'the'Gothic,'but'not,'it'should'be'said,'in' the'sense'that'has'been'previously'discussed.'When'the'Gothic'has'been'brought' up' in' relation' to' Christie’s' detective' eictions' ?' principally' in' Susan' Rowland’s' 2001'From(Agatha(Christie(to(Ruth(Rendell:(British(Women(Writers(in(Detective( and( Crime( Fiction( ?' it' has' been' precisely' in' terms' of' the' author’s' evoking' of' supernatural'forces'and'phenomena'as'a'viable'narrative'option,'only'for'these' to'be'ultimately'debunked'in'favour'of'a'judicious,'rational'explanation'for'the' deaths' that' have' taken' place.' Specieically,' Rowland' argues' that' in' Christie’s' eiction'the'Gothic'functions'as'‘a'threatening'state'which'detecting'is'meant'to' map' and' recuperate’,4'and'thus'Christie’s'use'of'the'Gothic'functions'as'a' structural' device' required' by' the' narrative' to' misdirect' the' detective' and' 1'Agatha'Christie,'‘The'Blue'Geranium’,'in'The(Thirteen(Problems'(1932;'London:'Harper,'2002),' p.'146. 2'Agatha'Christie,'The(Sittaford(Mystery'(1931;'London:'Harper'2002),'pp.''24?25. 3'Agatha'Christie,'The(Pale(Horse'(1961;'London:'Harper,'2002),'p.'88. 4'Susan'Rowland,'From(Agatha(Christie(to(Ruth(Rendell:(British(Women(Writers(in(Detective(and( Crime(Fiction'(Basingstoke:'Palgrave,'2001),'p.'116. !7 reader’s'suspicions'away'from'the'evil'that'lurks'closer'to'home.'For'example,' the' preternatural' metamorphosis' of' the' eloral' wallpaper' in' ‘The' Blue' Geranium’'(1932)'is'simply'a'lovesick'nurse’s'cruel'but'clever'trick'performed' with'litmus'paper'and'cyanide?of?potassium'crystals'disguised'as'smelling'salts.' The' other?wordly' announcement' of' murder' in' The( Sittaford( Mystery'(1931)' owes' to' a' rigged' séance' and' some' cross?country'
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