An Empire Gone Bad: Agatha Christie, Anglocentrism and Decolonization. (15th March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Prior, Christopher
• Is Part Of: Cultural and social history. Volume 15:Number 2(2018)
• Page Start: 197
• Page End: 213
• Publication Date: 2018-03-15
• Subjects: Decolonisation -- Agatha Christie -- decline -- Anglocentrism; Civilization -- History -- Periodicals; Social history -- Periodicals; 306.09005
• DOI: 10.1080/14780038.2018.1427354
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-0038

Abstract

Abstract: Recent scholarly accounts of early post-war society have emphasised the importance of positive and self-congratulatory narratives of decolonisation – whereby the end of empire was the inevitable result of a pro-active British beneficence – or have suggested that society was shielded from a sense of imperial decline. Such accounts are complicated by Agatha Christie's immensely popular crime novels, which constructed a narrative of British decline rooted in a sense of departure from pre-war ideals of imperial masculinity, but whose Anglocentrism nevertheless offered up the potential for imperial renewal pending a 'rediscovery' of such characteristics.