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Distributed for Intellect Ltd

Fan Phenomena: Sherlock Holmes

Few could have predicted the enduring fascination with the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. From the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the recent BBC series that has made a heartthrob out of Benedict Cumberbatch, the sleuth has been much a part of the British and global cultural legacy from the moment of his first appearance in 1887.

The contributors to this book discuss the ways in which various fan cultures have sprung up around the stories and how they have proved to be a strong cultural paradigm for the ways in which phenomena functions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Essays explore the numerous adaptations, rewritings, rip-offs, role-playing, wiki and crowdsourced texts, virtual realities, and faux scholarship Sherlock Holmes has inspired. Though fervid fan behavior is often mischaracterized as a modern phenomenon, the historical roots of fan manifestations that have been largely forgotten are revived in this thrilling book.

Complete with interviews with writers who have famously brought the character of Holmes back to life, the collection benefits from the vast knowledge of its contributors, including academics who teach in the field, archivists, and a number of writers who have been involved in the enactment of Holmes stories on stage, screen, and radio. The release of Fan Phenomena: Sherlock Holmes coincides with Holmes’s 160th birthday, so it is no mystery that it will make a welcome addition to the burgeoning scholarship on this timeless detective.

164 pages | illustrated in color throughout | 6.69 x 9.61 | © 2014

Fan Phenomena

Film Studies


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Table of Contents

Introduction

Tom Ue and Jonathan Cranfield

Sherlock Holmes and Shakespeare

Tom Ue

Holmes and the Snake Skin Suits: Fighting for Survival on `50s Television

Russell Merritt

Fan Appreciation no. 1

Anthony Horowitz: Author of The House of Silk

Doyle or Death? An Investigation into the World of Pastiche

Luke Benjamen Kuhns

Fan Appreciation no. 2

Ellie Ann Soderstrom: Author of Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus

Sherlock Holmes, Fan Culture and Fan Letters

Jonathan Cranfield

Fan Appreciation no. 3

The Team behind The Young Sherlock Holmes Adventures

Sherlock Holmes in the Twenty-second Century: Rebranding Holmes for a Child Audience

Noel Brown

Fan Appreciation no. 4

Scott Beatty: Co-author of Sherlock Holmes: Year One

On Writing New Adventures on Audio: Into the Interstices of Canon

Jonathan Barnes

The Creation of ‘The Boy Sherlock Holmes’

Shane Peacock

Fan Appreciation no. 5

Robert Ryan: Author of Dead Man’s Land

Getting Level with the King-Devil: Moriarty, Modernity and Conspiracy

Benjamin Poore

Contributor Biographies

Image Credits

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