The Covert Progression Of "The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd"

As one of the three major literary masters of the world,Agatha Christie pushed the British classical detective novel into the "golden age" and reached the highest level in the field of traditional detective literature.Therefore,it must be argued that Agatha Christie,in the history of the world's detective fiction occupied a pivotal position,and was widely recognized as the "detective novel queen".At present,domestic scholars often regard detective novels as popular literature rather than elite literature.Researchers usually only focus on these novels commercial value,but rarely analyze their artistic value.This is rather unfair to both Agatha Christie and her contemporaries.In fact,Agatha Christie's works have a very high artistic value.Especially with regard to their narrative discourse,she managed to break the traditional mould of detective novels and achieved an unprecedented breakthrough."The murder of Roger Ackroyd " was written in 1926,at the height of Agatha Christie's fame and it is widely regarded as one of her masterpieces.Its distinctive feature is in its narrative discourse which uniquely compliments the plot development and the covert progression.Therefore,in this thesis,we give"The murder of Roger Ackroyd"a comprehensive and in-depth analysis using the theory of "covert progression” put forward by contemporary Chinese narratologist Shen Dan.This is combined with the “narrative discourse theory” of the French narratologist Genette and finally the “unreliable narration theory” of American narratologist W· C booth,James Phelan.This thesis tries to establish a circular relationship between " The murder of Roger Ackroyd " and the “narrative discourse theory”: On the one hand,we use the narrative discourse theory to examine "The murder of Roger Ackroyd ",enriching its deep connotations and artistic charms;On the other hand,through the analysis of "The murder of Roger Ackroyd " to demonstrate the correct understanding of the narrative discourse theory.This thesis consists of three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.The introduction covers the development within history of detective novels and the status of Agatha Christie within it.It focuses on the narratology,the research method and the research value with regards to Agatha Christie novels.The body is divided into three chapters.Firstly the theory of "covert progression" proposed by Shen Dan then the“narrative discourse theory” of Genette in its basic frame.Finally it discusses the covert progression of " The murder of Roger Ackroyd " from the three aspects of narrative time,narrative mood and narrative voice.The conclusion summarizes the whole thesis,from the point of view of covert progression,revealing the " The murder of Roger Ackroyd " unique artistic values and charm.