摘 要

《无人生还》是英国推理小说作家阿加莎·克里斯蒂创作的长篇小说，出版于1939年。这部小说被誉为其最优秀的作品之一，在侦探小说的发展史上占据着重要的地位。阿加莎·克里斯蒂是英国女侦探小说家、剧作家，三大推理文学宗师之一。她的每部侦探小说都是心理学在文学上的巧妙运用，语言风格也颇具现代主义意蕴。目前国内外研究这本书的主要关注点集中在前景化视角研究和主体多义性的实现上。本文从意识流运用的角度切入，从推动人物发展，描摹人物内心，丰满人物形象等方面进行具体论证。研究发现，本书全篇大量运用了意识流写作技巧，不仅提升了故事的吸引力，更发展出了两个全新的侦探小说模式，对于后世同类型文学起到了深远的影响，并证明了侦探小说也具有较高的文学价值。

关键词：意识流；侦探小说；《无人生还》; 正义; 内心独白

Abstract

And Then There Were None is a novel written by the English mystery writer Agatha Christie, which is published in 1939. And Then There Were None is regarded as one of the best works of detective novels, and plays an important role in the development history of this genre. Agatha Christie is a British female detective novelist and playwright, and one of the three masters of reasoning literature. Each of Christie’s detective novel is a successful attempt of psychological description in literature, and her language style is also quite modern. At present, the main focus of researches on this book at home and abroad is on the foregrounding and the realization of ambiguous themes. This paper focuses on analyzing stream-of-consciousness writing in And Then There Were None, carrying out concrete argumentation from the perspectives of promoting the plot, depicting the inner world of the characters and fulling the characters. The paper found that the whole text devoted a lot on stream-of-consciousness writing skill which not only enhanced the attraction of the story, but also developed two new models of detective novel, “The snowstorm villa model” and the “Nursery rhyme killing model”. Moreover, And Then There Were None and its stream-of-consciousness writing had a profound impact on the later detective novels and proved that detective novels could have a high literary value as well.

Key Words: Stream of Consciousness; Criminal novel; And Then There Were None; Justice; Monologue

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Agatha Christie and Her Detective Novels 3

2.2 The Novel And Then There Were None 4

2.3 Foreign and Domestic Study on Stream of Consciousness 4

3 Writing Techniques of Stream of Consciousness in And Then There Were None 6

3.1 Promotion of Plots 6

3.1.1 Set the Nursery Rhyme as a Clue 6

3.1.2 Set the Chance of Committing a Crime as a Clue 7

3.1.3 Set the Motivation of Reasoning as a Clue 7

3.2 Description of Psychological Changes 8

3.2.1 Lawrence Worgrave - An Absurd Psychological Portrayal 8

3.2.2 Vera Claythorne’s Fear 9

3.2.3 Protagonist’s Confusing Monologue 10

3.3 Creation of Typical Character Images 10

3.3.1 Complexity of Characters 10

3.3.2 Conversion of Person narratives 12

4 Evaluation and Significance of Stream-of-Consciousness writing in And Then There Were None 13

4.1Attractive Plots 13

4.2 Striking Characters 15

4.3 Significant Impact 17

5 Conclusions 19

References 20

Acknowledgements 21

No Absolute Justice--Analysis of the Use of Streams of Consciousness in And Then There Were None

1 Introduction

And Then There Were None is written by the English mystery writer Agatha Christie, published in 1939. In 1943, the novel was adapted into a drama by the author herself. Later, this story was repeatedly adapted into films and television series, and the cumulative sales of the work have exceeded 100 million copies. And Then There Were None is regarded as one of the best detective novels by Agatha Christie herself and the majority of detective fans. And the novel plays an important role in the development of detective novels. The author, Agatha Christie, is a British female detective novelist and playwright, and one of the three distinguished masters of reasoning literature. Her representative works include Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. Agatha Christie’s work is very characteristic in terms of layout and plot. In her novels, the very beginning of each story is overwhelmingly full of suspicions and wonders, which makes the readers confused but stimulates the reader's curiosity. Agatha Christie’s detective novels are all successful attempt of psychological description in literature. Moreover, Christie’s language style is also quite modern which has rich meaning and broad interpretation space. Until the readers arrive the end of novel, it will be impossible to understand the true meaning of such language symbols Christie used. At present, the main focus of researches on this book at home and abroad is on the foregrounding research and the realization of ambiguous subjects.

The “Stream of Consciousness” is used to express the flow characteristics of consciousness. It is a psychological vocabulary that was first proposed and used by the American psychologist William James(1884). James gave a such brand-new conception: “It is nothing joined; it flows. A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ is the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let’s call it the stream of thought, consciousness, or subjective life.”^[1] “Literature Stream of Consciousness” is to express people’s thoughts and feelings and the most direct psychological changes through the form of literature. It is first seen in the Anglo-American literary world from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century because of political and economic turbulence. Therefore, “stream of consciousness” has become a medium for people to express their deeply subjective feelings. Dostoevsky (1880), Proust (1912), Joyce (1884), the outstandingly representative writers of stream-of-consciousness, push the expressive skills of consciousness flow and the stream of consciousness forward to the climax. Stream of consciousness blurs the boundaries between rationality and irrationality as well as the psychological state of logic and non-logic, which is a pure form of self-expression. The innovative and rebellious characteristics of stream-of-consciousness break the traditional writing rules.

This paper focuses on analyzing stream-of-consciousness writing in And Then There Were None, carrying out concrete argumentation from the perspectives of promoting the plot, depicting the inner world of the characters and fulling the characters. The paper found that the whole text devoted a lot on stream-of-consciousness writing skill which not only enhanced the attraction of the story, but also developed two new models of detective novel, the “The snowstorm villa model” and the “Nursery rhyme killing model”. Moreover, And Then There Were None and its stream-of-consciousness writing had a profound impact on the later detective novels and proved that detective novels could have a high literary value as well.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Agatha Christie and Her Detective Novels

In 1890, Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, Devon, England. When she was 16 years old, she went to Paris to study vocal music, but the great interest on literature made her finally give up singing. In 1914, during the First World War, she participated in British Red Cross volunteer teams for ambulance work. In 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in which the detective Poirot appeared for the first time. In 1975, Agatha Christie published her last novel, Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case. On January 12, 1976, she died in England, at the age of 85.

Agatha Christie’s work is very characteristic in terms of layout and plot. In her novels, the very beginning of each story is overwhelmingly full of suspicions and wonders, which makes the readers confused but stimulates the reader's curiosity. Agatha Christie’s detective novels are all successful attempt of psychological description in literature. Although Agatha Christie did not enter a formal school, she wrote exquisite and elegant words which sound smooth and natural. Apparently, Christie was influenced by Dickens’ novels, and her novels are structurally superior to Conan Doyle. Christie is good at using multiple expression to reflect social reality and description of hidden custom and humanity of every murder.

Christie is widely acclaimed by scholars: “Christie’s work has a permanent value.” (Wei Huang,2014) “Christy’s keen observation in social backgrounds, character descriptions, and dialogues is unparalleled.”(Qingyi Zheng, 2009)