Muriel Spark’s Employment of Burlesque: Parody of Detective Fiction in Not to Disturb

Abstract

Parody contributes to the improvement of literary genres since it is the key to various popular subgenres as in the case of the development of detective fiction. Muriel Spark’s Not to Disturb, among the contemporary examples of parody of detective stories, is about a group of sinister servants in a Swiss chateu awaiting impatiently the bloody deaths of their employers, dictating memoirs and even selling the fim rights beforehand. Analysed in terms of its plot structure, characterisation and setting, the novel proves to be a brilliant example of parody of detective stories.