Call for Papers

The Ageless Agatha Christie: Adaptations and Afterlives

A One-Day Conference at the University of Exeter, Monday 20th June 2016

Confirmed Keynotes:
Sophie Hannah, author of Hercule Poirot mysteries
Dr Mark Aldridge, Southampton Solent University

When Agatha Christie died in 1976, she was the acknowledged Queen of Crime. The bestselling novelist and most successful playwright of the twentieth century, she created the immortal detectives Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. Forty years after her death, her play The Mousetrap is in its seventh decade in London’s West End, while the BBC’s And Then There Were None was the most viewed television drama on Boxing Day 2015. With continuation novels, apps and video games, and big screen adaptations forthcoming, the Christie brand continues to adapt and evolve.

This conference will consider Agatha Christie in the context of adaptations and afterlives. We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers relating to this theme in any way. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

Christie in the 21st century
Continuation and tribute novels
Fandom, fanfiction, and fan studies
Stage, Screen, or Radio legacy
The art of adapting
Christie as a fictional character
Graphic novels
New strategies, new readers
Politics and globality
LGBTQ+ readings and appropriations
Detective fiction today
Translation
National identity and heritage
Rediscovery and re-evaluation

Please email abstracts of around 200 words to the organisers Dr Jamie Bernthal and Mia Dormer, at agathachristieconference@gmail.com no later than Monday 29th February 2016. We also invite unorthodox or creative approaches to the theme.

#Agatha2016