The Plotting of Criminal Relevance in the Story of Crime: Agatha Christie’s <i>Five Little Pigs</i>

Authors

Keywords:

Storyworld, Plot line, Frame analysis, Intent, Criminal relevance, Layering, Logical Fallacy

Abstract

The way a cause-and-effect relation between events is organized in a plot-based crime story depends upon a hinge point in the discourse, which unravels a competing story logic that shapes a “story of intentionality” embedded first in the story of crime and second in the story of investigation. The aim  of this paper is to evaluate the “intent.” If intent is considered as a hinge point against which the causality of events takes place, then it is necessary to work out the causation. Following a ‘‘discoursebased’’ frame analysis, an “intent frame” is evaluated using an “inference-making” process. The intent frame is then mapped along the horizontal and vertical axes of a narrative frame in the application of a logical fallacy. Such application of narratological concepts with stylistic strategy is effective for the revelation of participant relevance to an offense in the story of crime adapted from Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs.

Author Biography

Reshmi Dutta-Flanders, University of Kent

Dr Reshmi Dutta-Flanders

Honorary Research Fellow

University of Kent

English Language and Linguistics

School of European Culture and Languages

Cornwallis North East

Canterbury

Kent CT2 7NX

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Published

2020-05-29