Scholarly record
A.C. DOYLES HOLMESIAN SAGA AND THE MODERN WORLD: ALTERNATIVE REALITY IN THE TELEVISION SERIES SHERLOCK
Abstract
In 1887 Arthur Conan Doyle acquainted the world with the first adventure of a consulting detective from 221B Baker Street, London. After a few years, Sherlock Holmes became an iconic figure of fictional detective - he was read about, admired, parodied, and adapted both for stage and screen. Sherlock Holmes has become one of the symbols of the Late Victorian Age. But in the 21st century, Sherlock Holmes is still popular. Long time ago the famous detective broke the spatial and temporal borders set by his creator. In the British-American television series Sherlock (2010 - 2017) re-imagination of Holmes' world is interrelated with the realia of the 21st century - nicotine patches, drones, Closed-Circuit Television cameras, smart phones, computers, memory sticks, the Internet. Sherlock Holmes' life is too often dependent on virtual reality: the great detective is a great manipulator and mystificator, but sometimes he is manipulated and mystified. In the television series, different expressions of virtual reality are represented with two dominating ones: as an inevitable characterization of the 21st-century life and as a metaphor of the image of a detective-computer whose brain is hard disk drive represented by so-called mind palace. The present research is the study of phenomenon of virtual reality in the 21st-century screen adaptation of Holmesian saga applying comparative and structurally-semiotic methods, thus focusing on the representation of spatial and temporal landmarks of traditional and modern Sherlock Holmes world and the depiction of a detectives figure.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References14
Hutcheon L., O’Flynn S., Beginning to Theorize Adaptation: What? Who? Why? How? Where? When?/A Theory of Adaptation, UK, 2013, p 2;
Hutcheon L., O’Flynn S., Treating Adaptations as Adaptations/A Theory of Adaptation, UK, 2013, p 6;
Hutcheon L., O’Flynn S., Treating Adaptations as Adaptations/A Theory of Adaptation, UK, 2013, pp 7-8;
Alexander C.M.S., The Immortal Reputation: The Lasting Legacy of Holmes/The Sherlock Holmes Book, UK, 2017, p 132;
Rubio-Tamayo J.L., Barrio M.G., García F.G., Immersive Environments and Virtual Reality: Systematic Review and Advances in Communication, Interaction and Simulation/ Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 2017, http://www.mdpi.com/2414-4088/1/4/21/htm (Accessed June 26, 2018);
Doyle A.C., The Sign of Four/The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes, England, 2009 p 127;
Doyle A.C., A Study in Scarlet/The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes, England, 2009 p 21;
Gatiss M., Moffat S., The Sign of Three/Television series “Sherlock”, UK and US, 2014, timing 1:13:06;
Pimentel K., and Texeira K., Virtual Reality: Through the New Looking-Glass, US, 1993, p 11;
Gatiss M., Moffat S., The Empty Hearse/Television series “Sherlock”, UK and US, 2014, timing 1:09:40;
Gatiss M., Moffat S., A Study in Pink/Television series “Sherlock”, UK and US, 2010, timing 00:27:32;
Ryan, M.L., Reading in the Electronic Age/The Systemic and Empirical Approach to Literature and Culture as Theory and Application, Canada, 1997, p 122;
Gatiss M., Moffat S., The Sign of Three/Television series “Sherlock”, UK and US, 2014, timing 00:55:45;
Badina E., Tradition and Modernity of the Sherlock Holmes Stories in a British Television Series “Sherlock”/RES HUMANITARIAE IX, Lithuania, 2011, p 290.
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
