AgathaChristie is honored as “The First Lady of Mystery”. She opened up one goldenage of detective fiction. Her fictions receive world-wide detective fans andare especially popular among female readers. In the history of detectivefiction, males dominated the field. Females in their works are fewer in numberand distorted in portrayal. Agatha Christie challenged the tradition. Shedepicted female images from a female’s perspective. Under the influence of aseries of feminist movements and her personal experiences, she created newfemale images from these in male’s works. In her first period of literarycreation, she was under the influence of the male-dominated society and detectivepredecessors and she imitated more. However, on the basis of thesepredecessors, she made a certain innovation. Her female consciousness began tobud. Then, she created more female images and female criminals occupied a largepart. The frequent appearance of intellectual females who dared to challengethe society hinted Agatha’s good wish for female’s pursuit of economicindependence,, struggling from society and family bondage to go for happiness. Morefemales’ images also indicated Agatha’s growing female consciousness. In the mid-lateperiod, she created the first female detective which presented readers anindependent, intelligent and fresh female image. The first female detectiveexpressed Agatha’s already mature female conscious.

As awoman writer，Agatha Christie broke the traditional writingpattern for detective stories which focuses on the detectives，presentingto us her feminine consciousness. However，underthe pressure from the male-dominating society，shewas inevitably influenced by the male discourse. Death on the Nile is one of the masterpieces of Agatha, a femaledetective novelist. Based on the analysis of novel characters, dialogue amongcharacters, we can see in her works, on the one hand, Agatha is in an attemptto break the traditional male heroism images of detective novels from thefeminist perspective, showing the simplicity of feminist consciousness; on theother hand, influenced by patriarchal ideology, in the works Agatha still does unconsciouslyact as a spokesperson for male discourse.

As akind of common literature, the attention of detective fictions is often limitedto its commercial value and not discussed as a serious literary work. Even theanalysis of the works of detective novels such as Agatha Christie is rare. Theresearch on Agatha’s feminist concept is even rarer. In the literary historydominated by male power, the feminine consciousness in Agatha's detectivenovels is very significant. In the Deathon the Nile, she broke Conan Doyle’s tough guy model. She puts forward a naturalresistance to male power with soft and delicate image of detectives and shrewdimage of female criminals. However, in the arrangement of women's fate, shealso carries the persuasiveness and norms of men's rights discourse on women.This contradiction is inseparable from her time and family background. It isthis contradiction that forms a unique work that echoes the background offeminist era and opens up a unique perspective on feminine consciousness indetective literature.

HanXiu did an analysis of Agatha Christie’s contradictory feministic view taking endless night for example. She got suchconclusion: On the one hand, Agatha's worksshow a series of feminine characteristics and awakening of femaleconsciousness. On the other hand, we should also see that her works alsounwittingly act as spokespersons for the discourse of male rights. Thiscontradictory view of feminism is obviously inseparable from her time. Britain,known as "female paradise," is the birthplace of feminism. With thedevelopment of the industrial revolution in the 19th century and the increasingnumber of female workers, British feminism became an organized social movement.The women's organizations represented by the "National Women's FreedomFederation" were established one after another and obtained women's rightto vote, property and education for women. After all, the women's movement isstill in its infancy, and male discourse is still the dominant factor insociety. Therefore, her works will inevitably be affected by the long-terminfluence of the men's rights discourse, and they will not be able to make aqualitative breakthrough. Only by comprehensively considering these factors andacknowledging this contradiction, can Agatha Christie's work be analyzed in a moreobjective way than biased and extreme. Xu Limin did an evolution of femaleconsciousness: a study on female images in Agatha Christie’s detective fiction.She reached the conclusion: Agatha Christie creates many females in herliterary creation. Her female consciousness also grows up with constantly newfemale images. Under the instruction of feminism the thesis firstly havestudied the two types of female images in traditional males’ works and theirportrayal in Agatha Christie’s detective fictions--- the angel and monsterimages. The thesis talks about them in males’ works, then analyzes them inAgatha’s fiction. Because of the strong influence of the patriarchal society,these female images in male writers’ books are easily to be unreal anddistorted. Although Agatha’s portrayals of them are in a certain degreeinfluences by the male-dominated society and her predecessors, she makes someinnovation and development. Several typical angel and monster images have beentaken as examples and thus get the novelist’s budding female consciousness. Theanalysis on contradictory feminine consciousness in Agatha Christie’s works isbeneficial to recognize and know well Agatha, instead of limiting to the levelof detective. Yet the word “contradictory” embodies Agatha’s feminine is not soabsolute. From different perspective to see Agatha, it is conducive to have awhole comprehension of her works. What’s more, it avails to make clear aboutcharacters’ behavior, discourse and communication. There are some scholars havedone some research of Agatha’s contradictory feminine.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

Manyreaders usually focus on the details about criminals and crimes, when they arereading detective novels. A few people can pay attention to something else. AgathaChristie, as a detective writer, what she wrote is about not only crimes, butalso feminine. Her feminine reflects the feature of her age and familybackground. This paper focuses on the contradictory feminine consciousness.

Generallyspeaking, this paper will be divided into five parts. Firstly, it willintroduce the writer and the main content of the work. Secondly, it will talkabout feminine, including when it appeared, why it appeared, how it developedand so on. Thirdly, it will talk about Agatha’s contradictory feminine,including what contradictory feminine is. Then it will discuss the two parts ofcontradictory feminine and list examples that embody these contradictoryfeminine. Fourthly, it will talk about the reason of contradictory feminine,including why Agatha expressed feminine in her detective novel, and why thefeminine is not absolute. Finally, the paper will form a natural conclusion,which will give a more general impression of the whole content to readers.

Sincerelative research and studies of Agatha’s contradictory feminine are limited,the paper will consult bibliographies of the respective studies of this noveland some record of feminist movement and Agatha’s live. Besides, based on textanalysis, it helps us to know Agatha and her works better.

[1]Han,X. The Analysis of Agatha Christie’s Contradictory Feministic View──TakingEndless Night for Example [J]. Theory Research, 2010

[2]Christie,A. Death on the Nile [M]. Harper Collins, 1937

[3]Merja,M. Agatha Christie: Investigating Femininity [M]. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,2006