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Palgrave Macmillan

Sherlock Holmes in Context

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Editors:
  1. Sam Naidu

    1. Rhodes University , Grahamstown, South Africa

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  • Offers a wide-ranging reconceptualization of the role of Sherlock Holmes within contemporary culture
  • Takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the enduring appeal of Arthur Conan Doyle's best-loved creation
  • Approaches Holmes from surprising alternative angles to explore the scope of the character's influence across the literary world

Part of the book series: Crime Files (CF)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction

    • Sam Naidu
    Pages 1-5

  3. “All that Matters is the Work”: Text and Adaptation in Sherlock

    • Ann McClellan
    Pages 7-38

  4. Clients Who Disappear and Colleagues Who Cannot Compete: Female Characters in the BBC’s Sherlock

    • Benedick Turner
    Pages 39-60

  5. “I, Too, Mourn the Loss”: Mrs. Hudson and the Absence of Sherlock Holmes

    • Charlotte Beyer
    Pages 61-82

  6. The Trickster, Remixed: Sherlock Holmes as Master of Disguise

    • Benjamin Poore
    Pages 83-100

  7. Holmes and his Boswell in Cosplay and Roleplay

    • Lynn Duffy
    Pages 101-114

  8. A “Horrific Breakdown of Reason”: Holmes and the Postcolonial Anti-Detective Novel, Lost Ground

    • Sam Naidu
    Pages 115-131

  9. Sherlock Holmes and the Fiction of Agency

    • Martin Wagner
    Pages 133-147

  10. The Savage Subtext of The Hound of the Baskervilles

    • David Grylls
    Pages 149-166

  11. Holmes into Challenger: The Dark Investigator

    • Douglas Kerr
    Pages 167-185

  12. Modernizing Holmes: Location and Bringing Sherlock into the Twenty-First Century

    • Emily Garside
    Pages 187-200

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 201-206
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Keywords

About this book

This book of interdisciplinary essays serves to situate the original Sherlock Holmes, and his various adaptations, in a contemporary cultural context. This collection is prompted by three main and related questions: firstly, why is Sherlock Holmes such an enduring and ubiquitous cultural icon; secondly, why is it that Sherlock Holmes, nearly 130 years after his birth, is enjoying such a spectacular renaissance; and, thirdly, what sort of communities, imagined or otherwise, have arisen around this figure since the most recent resurrections of Sherlock Holmes by popular media?  Covering various media and genres (TV, film, literature, theatre) and scholarly approaches, this comprehensive collection offers cogent answers to these questions.

Reviews

“This collection is best for scholars interested in comparing Sherlock Holmes adaptations in their contexts to Sherlock Holmes in his canonical appearances. It is particularly strong for those studying the BBC’s Sherlock.” (Malcah Effron, cercles.com, June, 2018)



“Sherlock Holmes in Context covers topics not found in other books about Holmes and offers new insights into Sherlock and other adaptations. As part of Palgrave Macmillan’s Crime Files series, this book should help scholars and fans (or those who are both at once) discover new interpretations of well-known stories, novels, films, and episodes and gain a deeper understanding of the multi-faceted Sherlock Holmes.” (Lynnette Porter, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, Vol. 61 (3), 2018)



“This was a very strong collection of essays, which were engagingly written, thought provoking and stimulating. They follow on well from one another, with essays often picking up similar themes from the previous one but discussing them in a different way. … I definitely recommend this collection for fans of Sherlock Holmes … .” (crossexaminingcrime, crossexaminingcrime.wordpress.com, May, 2017)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Rhodes University , Grahamstown, South Africa

    Sam Naidu

About the editor

Sam Naidu is Associate Professor in the Department of English, Rhodes University, South Africa. Her main research and teaching areas are crime and detective fiction and transnational literature. She has published widely on South African crime and detective fiction and also on indigenous folklore and ethnography in colonial South Africa.

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