SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS AS A METHODOLOGICAL BASIS FOR THE VERBALIZATION OF THE CONCEPT OF CRIME IN THE DETECTIVE PROSE OF AGATHA CHRISTIE

Abstract

The scientific research is devoted to the study of the verbalization of the concept of CRIME in the English detective fiction of Agatha Christie in general, and in the detective novel “Death Comes at the End” (1944) in particular. The work has become the object of study because (1) it belongs to the Golden Age of detective literature, (2) it is a historical detective story (the events take place in Ancient Egypt), (3) it is full of cultural artifacts and events that serve as appropriate signs for its semiotic reading. The purpose of the article is to identify the ways of verbalizing the concept of CRIME through semiotic analysis, which serves as an important methodological basis for studying this concept in general and Agatha Christie’s detective fiction in particular, in terms of changes in the concept of crime itself, its cultural and social nature and historical context. The paper emphasizes that any sign (according to C. Peirce) is determined by its object, and therefore the classification of signs is based on the degree and method of manifestation of the “character of the object” in the form of a sign. It is proved that Charles Peirce’s sign theory can be effective in the semiotic interpretation of detective works, in particular such signs as diagrams or plans of buildings, maps of the area where the crime was committed (icons), physical evidence, key details for solving the crime (indices) or symbolic clues (symbols). The work also traces and describes Agatha Christie’s effective literary techniques that help create a tense and intriguing atmosphere of crime in the writer’s detective prose, including: hybridization of the detective genre, characterization of characters, psychologization of the crime motive, and georeferencing of the crime scene. From the standpoint of the semiotic approach, the paper reveals that the signs contained in Agatha Christie’s detective fiction carry an additional semantic load, interact with each other and contribute to a deeper interpretation of the crime, as shown in the novel “Death Comes at the End”. It is proved that the concept of CRIME in the novel is presented in different images, two types of Evil – that which comes from outside (father’s concubine Nofret) and that which comes from within (a passionate desire to let demons out). It should also be emphasized that the semiotic analysis of the connotations of the selected historical detective novel, its socio-cultural and psychological aspects that form these connotations, make it possible to answer the question of the evolution of the concept of CRIME in detective and criminal literature, to consider this work as a reflection and commentary on a particular period of the development of the detective in general.