A Study On Traumatic Theme In Agatha Christie’s Emotional Novels

Agatha Christie(1890-1976)was a world-renowned British detective novelist and playwright.She was awarded the title of “Queen of Mystery” by the British Queen for her outstanding achievements in detective novels.Little known is that,in addition to a large number of detective works,Agatha also wrote six emotional novels under the pen name of Mary Westmacott.Agatha created these six novels based on her own traumatic experiences.The twists and turns she had met brought her rich and profound life experiences and at the same time injected new inspiration and motivation into her emotional novels.In her novels,she wrote and thought about traumatic events and actively explored the ways to heal from trauma,involving not only the healing of her own trauma,but also a close connection with the times and society.Taking trauma theory as a perspective,this article analyzes the theme of trauma in Agatha’s novels and her intention and exploration of healing herself and recovering from trauma by writing,through exploring the traumatic occurrences faced by Agatha herself and the characters in her emotional novels.Agatha’s writing of trauma in these six emotional novels is not only an insight into self and individual life experience,but also a reflection and exploration of individuals’ state of existence under special circumstances.In her emotional novels,Agatha portrayed various characters who had traumatic experiences.With her own individual yet universal traumatic experiences,she demonstrated the deficiencies,loneliness,fear,confusion and depression of human existence in the chaotic20 th century,which shows the sense of social responsibility that a writer should have.The introduction of this paper first introduces the reasons for the topic,then summarizes the research status of Agatha’s six emotional novels at home and abroad and briefly describes the research methods of this paper,and finally elaborates the relevant content of trauma theory.The main body of the thesis consists of three chapters,which respectively analyze the family trauma,gender trauma and war trauma in Agatha’s emotional novels.Chapter one analyzes the family trauma in Agatha’s emotional novels.The reasons for writing the theme of family trauma include Agatha’s own family trauma experience and the conservative family atmosphere in England.In the novel,family trauma is embodied in the absence of father and relatives of the same age in the growing process of children,as well as the violent trauma encountered by both sides in the relationship between mother and child.The value and significance of family trauma writing include not only Agatha’s treatment of her own family trauma,but also her expectation of building a harmonious family.Chapter two analyzes the gender trauma in Agatha’s emotional novels.The reasons for writing the theme of gender trauma mainly include Agatha’s own experience of gender trauma and the imprisonment and injury of women brought by gender imbalance in contemporary British society and family.Gender trauma is specifically expressed in emotional novels as the trauma suffered by women under male mental control,including the trauma caused by the abandonment of dependent women by men.The significance of gender trauma writing is that it promotes the author’s treatment of self-gender trauma.The work also analyzes the thinking and choice of women in love and responsibility,and reflects the deep expectation of women’s independence.Chapter three analyzes the war trauma in Agatha’s emotional novels.The reasons for writing the theme of war trauma include Agatha’s own war experience and the serious impact of war on the society at that time.The trauma of war is concretly presented in Agatha’s emotional novels as the pain and despair brought by war to ordinary people and the loss of identity suffered by the soldiers who witnessed the war.And behind the war trauma writing contains Agatha’s treatment of self-war trauma,but also expresses the deep reflection on the war.The creating date of Agatha’s emotional novels spanned from World War I to postWorld War II.In this period,Britain experienced two world wars.Although Britain had won victory,the trauma brought by wars caused great suffering to this country.The instability of the country and the society also made people’s situation increasingly difficult.The repetitive and profound nature of trauma prevented the traumatized individuals to quickly heal from trauma by themselves.At this moment,literature became a method of catharsis.It enabled the traumatized to connect with the readers through the narration of traumatic occurrences,so as to recover from trauma as soon as possible.In writing about trauma in her emotional novels,Agatha was in fact telling about the traumatic occurrences she had experienced,venting her long-standing fears and repression in the process of reviewing traumatic occurrences,and achieving the purpose of healing herself.In addition,while Agatha healed her own trauma,she also showed concern for the situation of other similarly traumatized people,demonstrating her deep concern for human beings caught in the plight of trauma.