A Critique Of The Colonial Ideology In Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None

The famous British detective novelist Agatha Christie is known as the “Queen of Mystery Novels”.She was absorbed as a member of the Royal Society of Literature for her achievements in writing detective novels.Christie has fans from all over the world.According to statistics,she is the best-selling author in human history,enough to see the charm of her works.Christie wrote 80 mystery novels in her lifetime,and many of them are very popular.The novel And Then There Were None is also her proud work.It tells the story of a just old judge who designs to bring ten fish that have escaped from the net of law to justice,but in fact it also reveals Christie’s own ideology.The topic of racism is discussed in the novel,and different characters have expressed their different views.Previous studies of And Then There Were None mostly focus on analyzing its subtle detective narrative skills.Some scholars analyze this work from the perspectives of gender studies and morality.This thesis analyzes the author’s colonial ideology reflected in And Then There Were None from the perspective of postcolonialism.The content of this thesis is divided into five parts:Chapter One: Introducing the life of the author Agatha Christie,summing up the storyline of And Then There Were None;summarizing the methods and themes of domestic and foreign scholars in the study of And Then There Were None;introducing postcolonialism and the major concepts used in this thesis;stating the significance of the thesis.Chapter Two: Combing Christi’s descriptions of the East and Orientals in her other works and biography,paving the way for the following specific analysis of And Then There Were None.Chapter Three: Discussing the characters in the novel who have expressed views on the controversial topic of racism.Chapter Four: Summarizing the changes in Christie’s family and educational background and values,and analyzing why Christie conveys her colonial ideology and Orientalist assumptions intentionally or unintentionally through novels.Chapter Five: Concluding that Agatha Christie is deeply influenced by the racism and colonial ideology of her time.