Hercule Poirot and the Tricky Performers of Stereotypes in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express

Kenneth Eckert

doi:10.18778/2083-2931.11.13

Authors

Kenneth Eckert Hanyang University ERICA, Korea https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6514-0894

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.11.13

Keywords:

Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express, Hercule Poirot, detective fiction, British fiction, prejudice, stereotypes

Abstract

Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (1934) remains well-read, and its hero Hercule Poirot continues to enjoy popular currency. Yet the text has not aged well due to some of its now clichéd plot developments and dialogue, as well as Christie’s depiction of class, ethnic and national prejudices in it and her other novels. This study hopes to re-energize discussion on Murder by finding defensible reasons for its apparent flaws. Not only do the stereotypical behaviors of the passengers narratively distract Poirot and the reader from a solution, but their flaws serve as foils against which Poirot’s heroic gravitas and cultural values are positively contrasted. Further, criticism often misses the point that the passengers are performing their behaviors, and if so, the deployment of stereotypes as only acted performances destabilizes them as permanent aspects of national or ethnic identity. Can Murder then be read as an anti-racist text?

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Author Biography

Kenneth Eckert, Hanyang University ERICA, Korea

Kenneth (Ken) Eckert is a Canadian and Associate Professor of English at Hanyang University ERICA in Korea. He teaches British literature, including Shakespeare, modernism and postmodernism. He has published on Chaucer, medieval romance, satire and 1950s literature, and recently published a humor novel, Shorter of Breath.

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