空間焦慮與閱讀實踐　克莉絲蒂偵探小說的日常生活特質

Spatial Anxiety and Reading Practice-Everyday Life in Agatha Christie's Detective Novels

葉雅茹(Ya-Ju Yeh)

《英美文學評論》 13期 (2008/12) Pp. 91-117

https://doi.org/10.6711/REAL.200812_(13).0004

摘要

享有「謀殺之后」(Queen of Crime)美譽的偵探小說作家阿嘉莎‧克莉絲蒂，以驚人的創作量與深具原創性的情境設計吸引了無數讀者大眾，其名幾乎爲英國古典偵探小說黃金時代的同義詞。克式偵探小說承襲了英國古典偵探小說的結構框架與角色設定，眾多文本總是與當代的社會變遷息息相關。然而克式文本空間或小說角色如何啟動大眾閱讀慾望，以及讀者如何將此空間與自身閱讀經驗接軌等議題卻似乎未受評論家所重視。本文試圖由克式偵探小說文本的鄉村空間切入，探討此一空間的意識型態如何受到傳統偵探小說論述讚揚／貶抑，並如何成爲克式筆下的獨特場景；進而審視克式偵探或罪犯角色的特質；最後將克式偵探小說所開啟的文本空間與大眾的閱讀實踐作一互文性聯繫，以讀者如何閱讀偵探小說並發展出文本與日常生活之間的意涵，重新檢視克式偵探小說的大眾閱讀經驗。

關鍵字

阿嘉莎•克莉絲蒂 ； 日常生活 ； 去個體性 ； 戲劇性 ； 閱讀形構

並列摘要

Lauded as ”Queen of Crime,” Agatha Christie has been the most prolific writer of the Golden Age. Though inheriting some conventions from her predecessors, her detective genre generates numerous publications and incessant original ideas of detection, poison, and murder. Christie's designs of plots and roles are vitalized in a structural and social sense since they bear profound witnesses to the ever-changing British society. As repetitive themes in classic detective novels, such as credits of science, reason, and surveillance, always help to consolidate the established legitimacy of ideology and social order, Christie's works are inevitably subject to the same criticism. Yet, issues about how Christie's textual space and characters stimulate the reading public's interest and how their reading experiences develop with such stimulations have not been quite emphasized. Addressing these issues, this paper will focus, first, a spatial trait of Christie's unique country setting; second, investigate her specific characterization of detective and criminal; last, explore an inter-textual relation concerning how readers appropriate the textual space to their senses of everyday life in the activity of reading and detecting.

並列關鍵字

Agatha Christie ； everyday life ； de-individuality ； theatricality ； reading formations

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