Abstract

Celebrated for her unmatched contributions to the mystery genre, Agatha Christie herself was involved in a real-life mystery that surpassed any of her stories in fiction. Christie’s mysterious disappearance, following her rise to literary stardom, sparked a massive manhunt and a lot of speculation. The true reason for Christie's sudden disappearance—thought to be related to personal turmoil, including her mother's death and her husband's infidelity—remains a topic of intrigue and curiosity, adding yet another layer to the mystery of the "Queen of Crime." Notwithstanding what Roland Barthes said about the danger of reading a biographical context into a text, this paper aims to explore the significant literary transformation observed in Agatha Christie’s writings after her mysterious 11-day disappearance in 1926. This period of absence, which is considered a turning point in her life, is often speculated to have influenced Christie’s narrative style, character development, and thematic focus. This paper aims to identify the subtle yet substantial differences in her portrayal of gender roles and female characters by using a feminist lens to analyse some of her pre- and post-disappearance writings, and in doing so this article will make use of Julia Kristeva’s Psychoanalytic Feminism. By examining how complex, independent, and strong her female main characters are, as well as any critique of society in her later works, the paper hopes to show how Christie's own experiences may have shaped her literary voice and her depiction of women.