Whodunnit? Gender and Class in Agatha Christie’s England through History, Literature, and Film

Agatha Christie's novels are not only terrific murder mysteries (and the best selling and most translated works of all time), they are also windows into early twentieth-century English society, notably the interplay of gender, social class, and nostalgic English village life. Students read The Body in the Library, first published in 1942 during World War II, yet set in an imaginary time of non-combat. Students analyze curated primary sources and screen selected film and television adaptations not only to solve the mystery alongside famed elder detective Miss Marple, but also to develop insights into the ways individuals and English social institutions experienced, maintained, and/or challenged prevailing norms of gender, age, class, and Englishness during the 1930s and 1940s.