A Study of Racism in Christie’s Death on the Nile and Its Cinematic Adaptation

Abstract

Recent years have exhibited the process of adaptation of literary texts into cinemas as a vogue. Therefore, this intertextuality has displayed an extensive scope for critics as well as researchers to critically acclaim the nature of adaptation. Different aspects of Agatha Christie’s novel Death on the Nile and its cinematic adaptation directed by Kenneth Branagh (released in the year 2022) have been studied by several scholars. But this paper will exclusively comprehend the presence of glimpses of "race and ethnicity" in both the works of art. During the early decades of 20th century, the concept of ‘racial differences’ was widely prevalent in Europe. This had led to blooming of terms like ‘imperialism’ and ‘orientalism’ in literary discourse by western scholars. The colonisers expanded their territory to the countries of Africa & Asia and wanted to invest through trade and get maximum output from these nations. They also wanted natives of colonised countries to serve them in their army troops during the world wars. The elements of racial bias that we can trace in the chosen novel are a product of the time in which the novel was written. During that time, the norm of the English society was to avidly refer to the non-Europeans as ‘others,’ corresponding to their descent. This idea will form the base on which the paper will be built up while minutely anatomizing and commenting on the dialogues available in the text as well as the movie addressing racial issues.