Seminar 2. A Proper Victorian Gentleman: Sherlock Holmes in the XXI century
1. Victorian agenda in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”
- Sherlock Holmes as an epitome of Victorian gentleman: Reason vs Chaos
- Class and gender issues
- Imperial and colonial themes
2. A Farewell to Stability: the decay of Victorian world in Mitch Cullin’s “A Slight Trick of the Mind”
- What meanings might the title of the novel acquire with regard to its plot?
- What is Holmes’s perception of the post-WWII world? Is his age the only reason he doesn’t fit into it?
- How many plotlines are there in the novel? What are their functions? Can any of them be called a detective storyline?
- What transformations did the character of Holmes undergo in the derivative text? Do they contradict the spirit of Victorian pretext?
3. Postmodern reevaluation of Victorian metanarrative in M.Cullin’s “A Slight Trick of the Mind”
- Which Victorian values are being reevaluated in the derivative text, in what way (destruction, deconstruction or reconstruction) and why?