A Corpus Stylistic Analysis
Translated title
Representations of Gender in Agatha Christie's poirot and Miss Marple
Author
Porto, Marina Angélica
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2015
Submitted on
2015-05-28
Pages
91
Abstract
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan kønsroller er vævet ind i Agatha Christies måde at karakterisere sine to berømte detektiver, Hercule Poirot og Miss Jane Marple, på. Studiet bruger korpus-stilistik—en kombination af stilistik (studiet af litterær stil) og korpuslingvistik (analyse af store tekstsamlinger)—til at finde sproglige mønstre på tværs af romanerne. Der blev opbygget to tekstsamlinger (korpora): fem Poirot-romaner og fem Miss Marple-romaner. Den teoretiske ramme omfatter: (1) stilistik, herunder feministisk stilistik og narrativ stilistik; (2) et overblik over forandringer i kønsroller i England, fra 1980 og perioden efter Anden Verdenskrig; (3) teorier, der ser køn som socialt og diskursivt konstrueret, dvs. formet af sociale interaktioner og sprogbrug; og (4) principper for karakterisering samt almindelige stereotype mandlige og kvindelige figurer i fiktion. Metoden gør det muligt at kombinere kvantitativ analyse (optælling og sammenligning af ord og mønstre) med kvalitativ analyse (nærlæsning i kontekst), hvilket styrker resultaterne og gør dem mere robuste. Fundene viser gennemgående tendenser i, hvordan de to detektiver fremstilles. De bekræfter kritikeres påstand om, at Poirot og Miss Marple for det meste skrives i overensstemmelse med kønsstereotyper, men at de også udfordrer kønsnormer ved at vise nogle atypiske træk. Karakteriseringen bygger på komparative strukturer (sammenligninger), metaforer og gentagelser af ord og udtryk, der aktiverer læserens forhåndsviden og forventninger (ofte kaldet skemaer).
This thesis examines how gender roles are woven into the way Agatha Christie characterises her two famous detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. The study uses corpus stylistics—a combination of stylistics (the study of literary style) and corpus linguistics (the analysis of large text collections)—to identify language patterns across the novels. Two text collections (corpora) were built: five Poirot novels and five Miss Marple novels. The theoretical framework covers: (1) stylistics, including feminist stylistics and narrative stylistics; (2) an overview of changes in gender roles in England, from 1980 and the period after the Second World War; (3) theories that view gender as socially and discursively constructed, meaning shaped by social interaction and language use; and (4) principles of characterisation and common male and female stereotypes in fiction. This approach combines quantitative analysis (counting and comparing words and patterns) with qualitative analysis (close reading in context), which strengthens the findings and makes them more robust. The results show consistent tendencies in how the two detectives are portrayed. They confirm critics’ claims that Poirot and Miss Marple are mostly written in line with gender stereotypes, yet they also challenge gender norms by displaying some atypical traits. The characterisation relies on comparative structures (comparisons), metaphors, and repeated words or phrases that activate readers’ prior knowledge and expectations (often called schemata).
[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]
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