In the Company of Detective Ladies Gendered Modes of Detection in the Works of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Alexander McCall

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wallace, Miriam

Keywords

Detective Fiction, Gender, Marriage

Area of Concentration

English

Abstract

The rational male detective, exemplified in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle�s Sherlock Holmes, is frequently portrayed as a socially unfixed, unemotional, loner figure. He protects, but is divorced from domestic realm. Because female characters cannot disengage from their domestic identity in the same way in which male characters can, female detectives have to incorporate two seemingly conflicting identities. In order to negotiate the issues that result from their gender�namely, assumed differences both in types of knowledge, and in the construction of personal and professional identities�female detectives employ different modes of detection. Miss Marple, Agatha Christie�s spinster detective, gleans information from town gossip and uses her observational skills and �intuition� to solve the mysteries that disrupt life in St. Mary Mead�however she struggles to assert herself as a legitimate detective. Dorothy L. Sayers�s Harriet Vane, an author of detective fiction who incidentally falls into the role of the detective, calls upon her academic training to solve mysteries, but struggles to combine her personal life and her detective persona. Alexander McCall Smith�s Mma Ramotswe, a �traditionally built� Batswana woman, uses her common sense and the �old Botswana Moral code� to help restore the social fabric of Botswana.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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