Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Shared Narratives: Intermediality in Fandom
- 2 Fan Membership: Traditional and Digital Fieldwork
- 3 Naturalizing Sherlock: Dutch Fans Interpret the Famous Detective
- 4 Queer Teen Drama: Rewriting and Narrative Closure in Glee Fan Fiction
- 5 Transmedia Play: Approaching the Possible Worlds of Firefly
- 6 Embodied Characters: The Affective Process of Cosplay
- 7 Conclusion: Prospects for Fan Studies
- Bibliography of Fan Works
- Index
3 - Naturalizing Sherlock: Dutch Fans Interpret the Famous Detective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Shared Narratives: Intermediality in Fandom
- 2 Fan Membership: Traditional and Digital Fieldwork
- 3 Naturalizing Sherlock: Dutch Fans Interpret the Famous Detective
- 4 Queer Teen Drama: Rewriting and Narrative Closure in Glee Fan Fiction
- 5 Transmedia Play: Approaching the Possible Worlds of Firefly
- 6 Embodied Characters: The Affective Process of Cosplay
- 7 Conclusion: Prospects for Fan Studies
- Bibliography of Fan Works
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Discussing the interpretations of Dutch fans of Sherlock, I seek to understand how viewers make sense of the series in relation to other texts and what kind of literary competence they display in their reception. The study is based on seven in-depth interviews with Dutch fans of the series. WThese interviews show how a local audience makes sense of the transmedial elements in the series. In their discussion of Sherlock, the interviewees focused on its modern aspects, its characters, and its Englishness. I argue that fans understand the narrative in highly individual ways by “naturalizing¨ it. In other words, viewers explore Sherlock through their implicit understanding of related genres, local and global popular texts, as well as their own experiences of what constitutes plausible character behavior.
Keywords: Transmediality, naturalization, television, intertextuality, detective genre
Introduction
For international readers, Sherlock Holmes has always been considered the epitome of English culture. We picture him riding in a hansom cab through London, investigating dark alleys and tracing clues at a crime scene near the Thames. Throughout the years, pastiche writers have reworked the Sherlock Holmes stories by relating its main character to the cultural history of Britain and Europe, to other fictional texts such as gothic novels, or by introducing him to local detectives such as Arsène Lupin and scientists such as Freud (Boef, 2005). The staff of the BBC series Sherlock (2010) explicitly revises this characterization and chooses to portray Holmes in a contemporary setting. Writer Mark Gatiss stresses in the documentary Unlocking Sherlock (2010): “Sherlock Holmes has become so much about the trappings, about the hansom cabs, about the costumes, the fog, Jack the Ripper will creep in here. It's become a strange maelstrom of stuff.” In contrast, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat give a fresh spin in a new time and setting.
Sherlock transforms some of the recognizable Sherlock Holmes features while simultaneously echoing an awareness of the stories and the history of their reception. International readers often have their own ideas of Holmes as a figure that are not influenced by the novels but by popular and local culture. Some audiences know him from movies, such as Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes (2009) or The Case of the Silk Stocking (2004).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Productive FandomIntermediality and Affective Reception in Fan Cultures, pp. 67 - 110Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018