The Sense of Uncanny in Agatha Christie’s A Caribbean Mystery
Abstract
The prolific English detective and crime fiction
writer Agatha Christie’s A Caribbean Mystery (1964) has an outstanding status
due to the number of controversies involved in the plotline, the complicated
relationships between characters and the exotic setting in a supposedly
colonial background. Moreover, the novel draws attention due to the tension
that keeps rising until the end in addition to the fearful environment. In
fact, the psychological response of the characters in the novel is worth
studying due to the sense of uncanny. Apparently, only Miss Marple is capable
of achieving the rationalising process that includes the familiar and the
strange. The psychological understanding of the uncanny seems to be highly
related to the fictional account in Christie’s novel. Therefore, this work aims
to analyse Christie’s A Caribbean Mystery in the light of the sense of the
uncanny to explain the response of the characters.
Keywords
Agatha Christie,A Caribbean Mystery,Uncanny,Sigmund Freud,Detective Fiction
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