Miss Marple's Legacy: The Protagonist’s Feminist Portrayal in Marple:12 New Stories

Abstract

This study presents the enduring feminist elements depicted in the main character of Marple: 12 New Stories, portraying a unique and sympathetic woman within the detective fiction genre. Emerging in 1927, well before the active feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s, Miss Marple defied traditional gender norms, embodying independence and strength. Despite the societal constraints of women of her time, her popularity persisted, leading to numerous adaptations, including films and television series. Moreover, in 2022, a significant development occurred as twelve distinguished British and American contemporary female writers contributed to Marple: 12 New Stories, the first authorized sequel in detective fiction featuring Miss Marple after Agatha Christie’s decease. This collection not only pays tribute to Christie's iconic creation but also reimagines Miss Marple through diverse perspectives, emphasizing her feminist legacy in the 21st century. In this regard, this paper takes a look at how Miss Marple's portrayal as a strong woman, both in the original works and the recent sequel, serves as an everlasting inspiration for future writers of detective fiction and feminists alike.

Keywords

• Agatha Christie
• Dedektif Kurgu
• Feminizm
• Marple:12 Yeni Öykü
• Miss Marple

References

1. Alderman, N. (2002). The Open Mind. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
2. Bardugo, L. (2022). The Disappearance. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
3. Bloomfield, J. (2020) Three Ordinary, Normal Old Women: Agatha Christie’s Uses of Shakespeare. Shakespeare, 16(1), 23-39.
4. Bunson, M. (2000). The Complete Christie: An Agatha Christie Encyclopedia. Gallery Books.
5. Cawelti, John G. (2004). Mystery, Violence, and Popular Culture: Essays. The University of Wisconsin Press.
6. Cawthorne, N. (2014). Agatha Christie: The life and times of the queen of crime. Running Press.
7. Chesterton, G. K. (2014). Complete Works of G. K. Chesterton (Illustrated). Delphi Classics.
8. Christie, A. (1985). Miss Marple: The complete short stories. Berkley Books.

9. Christie, A. (2001). Agatha Christie: An Autobiography. HarperCollins.
10. Christie, A. (2011). A Murder is Announced. William Morrow Paperbacks.
11. Christie, A. (2016). The Moving Finger. HarperCollins.
12. Christie, A. (2019). The Body in the Library. HarperCollins.
13. Christie, A. (n.d.). The Home of Agatha Christie. https://www.agathachristie.com/en
14. Cole, A. (2022). Miss Marple Takes Manhattan. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
15. Cunningham, M.E. (2018). Agatha Christie: Traveler, Archaeologist, and Author. Cavendish Square Publishing.
16. Devas, A. (2002). Murder, Mass Culture, and the Feminine: A View from the 4.50 from Paddington. Feminist Media Studies, 2(2), 251-265.
17. Doyle, A. C. (1986). Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories,Vol.1. Bantam Classics.
18. Flood, A. (2021, Aug 31). Miss Marple back on the case in stories by Naomi Alderman, Ruth Ware and more. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/31/miss-marple-back-stories-by-val-mcdermid-kate-mosse-agatha-christie
19. Foley, L. (2022). Evil in Small Places. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
20. Frost, W., & Laing, J. (2014) Fictional media and imagining escape to rural villages. Tourism Geographies, 16(2), 207-220.
21. Griffiths, E. (2022). Murder at the Villa Rosa. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
22. Hardesty, S. M. (1983). Using the “Little Grey Cells.” The English Journal, 72(5), 37-40.
23. Haynes, N. (2022). The Unravelling. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
24. Jacobs, A. (2015). Miss Marple and the Problem of Modern Identity. The New Atlantis, 47, 18-30. James, P.D. (2001). Cover Her Face. Simon & Schuster.
25. Kalikoff, B. (2006). Killer Cupcakes: Food, Feminism, and Murder in Mystery Fiction by Women. CEA Critic, 69(1/2), 67-76.
26. Kemp, S. (2017). Defective Inspectors: Crime-fiction Pastiche in Late Twentieth-century French Literature. Taylor & Francis.
27. Ker, I. (2011). G. K. Chesterton: A Biography. OUP Oxford.
28. Köseoğlu, B. (2015). Gender and Detective Literature: The Role of Miss Marple inAgatha Christie’s The Body in the Library. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 4(3), 132-137.
29. Kwok, J. (2022). The Jade Empress. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
30. Leblanc, M. (2018). Collected Works of Maurice Leblanc (Illustrated). Delphi Classics.
31. Luebering, J. E. (2023, Dec 4). Arsène Lupin. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arsene-Lupin
32. Mcarthur, D. (2016). Reading and Interpreting the Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Enslow Publishing.
33. McDermid, V. (2022). The Second Murder at the Vicarage. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
34. McManus, K. M. (2022). The Murdering Sort. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
35. Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Feminism. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved December 1, 2023, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminism
36. Merritt, S. (2022, Sep 18). Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley; Marple: Twelve New Stories – review. The Observer. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/18/agatha-christie-a-very-elusive-woman-by-lucy-worsley-marple-twelve-new-stories-review
37. Mezei, K. (2007). Spinsters, Surveillance, and Speech: The Case of Miss Marple, Miss Mole, and Miss Jekyll. Journal of Modern Literature, 30(2), 103-120.
38. Mitchell, D.S. (2022). A Deadly Wedding Day. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
39. Mosse, K. (2022). The Mystery of the Acid Soil. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
40. Powers, A. (2020). True Crime Parallels to the Mysteries of Agatha Christie. McFarland & Company.
41. Redmond, C. (2009). Sherlock Holmes Handbook: Second Edition. Dundurn Press.
42. Rolls, A. (2015). An Ankle Queerly turned, or the fetishised bodies in Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library. Textual Practice, 29(5), 825-844.
43. Rzepka, C. J. (2005). Detective Fiction. Polity Press.
44. Sayers, D.L. (1995). Whose Body? Harper Paperbacks.
45. Shaffi, S. (2022, Sep 15). Feminist icon’ Miss Marple returns in 12 new authorised mystery stories. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/15/feminist-icon-miss-marple-returns-in-12-new-authorised-mystery-stories-agatha-christie
46. Snell, K. D. M. (2010). A drop of water from a stagnant pool? Inter-War detective fiction and the rural community. Social History, 35(1), 21-50.
47. Tavlin, Z. (2018). C. Auguste Dupin. In E. Sandberg (Ed.) 100 Greatest Literary Detectives (pp. 54-56). Rowman & Littlefield.
48. Various Authors. (2022). Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins
49. Ware, R. (2022). Miss Marple’s Christmas. In Marple: Twelve New Stories. HarperCollins.
50. Warren, C. A. (2010). Gender and Moral Immaturity in Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.” CEA Critic, 73(1), 51-63.