The Sherlock Holmes phenomenon Start date 7 December 2012 End date 9 December 2012 Venue Madingley Hall Madingley Cambridge Tutor Ulrike Horstmann-Guthrie Course code 1213NRX053 Dr Judith Braid For further information on this course, please contact To book See: www.ice.cam.ac.uk or telephone 01223 746262 Linda Fisher, Academic Programme Manager on 01223 746218 Sandy Haylock, Programme Administrator on 01223 746227 Tutor biography Ulrike Horstmann-Guthrie received her undergraduate degree in English, American, Russian and German Literature from the University of Hamburg in 1977 and her M.Phil. in General and Comparative Literature from the University of Oxford in 1981. From 1977 she held lecturing posts at Leicester, Oxford, Manchester and Leeds Universities and since 1985 has taught for the Institute of Continuing Education and the Department of German at the University of Cambridge. While teaching literature from 1700 to the present day, her particular interest centres on 19th-century fiction and she has published on English and German writers in their cultural and historical contexts, exploring connections and mutual influences. Judith has had wide experience teaching French and English at secondary and tertiary levels, at the University College of Wales and in Cambridge. After completing her doctorate on Balzac she specialised in teaching 19th and 20th century literature. She has taught mature students at the Open University, at Madingley Hall and at the University of the Third Age. Her current research interests are in the development of the genre of detective fiction, both British and European. University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ www.ice.cam.ac.uk
Course Programme Friday 7 December 2012 Please plan to arrive between 4:30 and 6:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 6:15. Tea and Coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms. 7.00 pm Dinner 8.30 pm 10.00 pm Crime Considered As One of the Fine Arts 10.00 pm Terrace bar open for informal discussion Saturday 8 December 2012 8.00 am Breakfast 9.00 am 10.30 am A Scandal in Bohemia and other stories from Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: Selected Stories, ed. S Castle Roberts, OUP World s Classics paperback 10.30 am Coffee 11.00 am 12.30 pm The Hound of the Baskervilles, and other Holmes stories 1.00 pm Lunch 2.00 pm Free 4.00 pm Tea 4.30 pm 6.00 pm Rivalling Holmes 7.00 pm Dinner 8.30 pm 10.00 pm Holmes and Watson on film 10.00 pm Terrace bar open for informal discussion Sunday 9 December 2012 8.00 am Breakfast 9.00 am 10.30 am Homage to Holmes - the Golden Age 10.30 am Coffee 11.00 am 12.30 pm Modern Times 1.00 pm Lunch The course will disperse after lunch
Course syllabus Aims: 1. To provide an overview of the Sherlock Holmes Phenomenon from the earliest influences up to the latest productions. 2. To appreciate Conan Doyle s techniques through close textual analysis. 3. To study a range of imitations of the original short stories. 4. To make a comparison of filmed versions of Holmes and Watson. Content: The Victorian period was one of ever-increasing prosperity and power for the British, but it was also characterised by social problems arising from the new industrial conditions, by doubts and hopes inspired by the new science and by debates about what constitutes crime and what punishment. Sir Robert Peel as Home Secretary brought in measures which developed a modern police force and created a modern bureaucratic state, and it was in this context that detective fiction as a literary form originated. With the introduction of the detective as a literary figure, the representative of society who enforces the law on its behalf becomes the central protagonist of much narrative fiction, such as Edgar Allen Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1868), and, featuring the most famous detective of all times, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories (from 1887). After the close analysis of some key Holmes texts, we will review the work of Doyle s lesser-known contemporaries and rivals before moving on to discuss the gentlemen detectives favoured by Golden Age writers, such as D.L. Sayers, Margery Allingham and Nicholas Blake. Doyle s short stories about Holmes and Watson have been imitated countless times: we will compare a small selection of parodies and pastiches from different eras. The course will conclude with an evaluation of some of the most recent British and American works which have a Holmes connection. One of the sessions will be devoted to portrayals of Holmes on screen. Presentation of the course: The course will consist of informal lectures and some close analysis of key extracts from the short stories by Conan Doyle and his later imitators. One session will be given over to selected film versions. Outcomes: As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to: 1. Show a wider knowledge of the subject, its origins and its legacy. 2. Demonstrate skills of close reading in response to different passages. 3. Appreciate the influence of Conan Doyle s hero on later literary characters.
Reading and resources list Listed below are a number of texts that might be of interest for future reference, but do not need to be bought (or consulted) for the course. Author Title Publisher and date Set text: Doyle Arthur Conan Supplementary reading: Sherlock Holmes Selected Stories The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes OUP pbk, 2008 Altick R D The Presence of the Present. Topics of the Day in the Victorian Novel 1991 Barnes, Julian Arthur and George Cape, 2005 David Deirdre The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel CUP, 2001 De Quincey Thomas On Murder Considered As one of the Fine Arts OUP, 2006 Flanders Judith Frank Lawrence The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Victorian Detective Fiction and the Nature of Evidence Harper Press, 2011 Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 James P D Talking About Detective Fiction Faber & Faber, 2009 Lycett, Andrew Conan Doyle: The Man who created Sherlock Holmes Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007 Priestman Martin, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction CUP, 2003 Summerscale Kate The Suspicions of Mr Whicher Bloomsbury, 2008 Thompson F M L Tucker Herbert F Earliest Titles: The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian Britain 1830 1900 A Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture Fontana, 1988 Blackwell, 1999 Green Hugh (editor) The Rivals of S H Early Detective Stories Penguin, 1970
Bentley E C Trent s Last Case 1912 Golden Age authors: Allingham Margery The Tiger in the Smoke 1952 Blake Nicholas Thou Shell of Death 1936 D L Sayers Strong Poison 1930 D L Sayers Gaudy Night 1935 Modern Times: Carr Caleb The Italian Secretary Time Warner, 2005 Davies D S (editor) Sherlock Holmes: Website Addresses http://www.victorianweb.org Note Students of the Institute of Continuing Education are entitled to 20% discount on books published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) which are purchased at the Press bookshop, 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge (Mon-Sat 9am 5:30pm, Sun 11am 5pm). A letter or email confirming acceptance on to a current Institute course should be taken as evidence of enrolment. Information correct as of September 2012