The Curious Case of the Adapted Detective: Syllabus
Some people were asking about what "The Curious Case of the Adapted Detective" looks like, so here it is. Bear in mind that this is my department's upper-division theory seminar, so that the post-Doyle Holmes universe becomes a case study for talking about adaptation, appropriation, and the sometimes exceptionally fuzzy line between the two. Because of in-class tech constraints, we're dealing with fairly conventional media--novels, film, TV--but the students have leeway to research Whatever They Want, which, when it comes to Sherlock Holmes, is a stunningly wide range of material...
Given the immense quantities of Holmes out there, and the necessity of giving the students ample time to prep and discuss the secondary texts, I had to make some v. sad decisions--chief among them being that I wound up eliminating the RDJ/Law Holmes (OK, I don't actually like the films as Holmes films, but they're significant in terms of certain trends). Ultimately, for pedagogical purposes, I opted for a straight run of variants on the Hound, giving us a baseline for comparison.
The class assumes no prior knowledge of the original stories. The literary pastiches come in groups: two very different (and either bleak or sardonic) accounts of how the Holmes/Watson partnership "ended"; two attempts to rethink Holmes and his methods in the context of WWII and the Holocaust; and two more...unusual...takes on the canon.
WEEK 1 (1/28)
Introduction and tour
A Study in Scarlet
WEEK 2 (2/4)
“A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Five Orange Pips," “The Speckled Band,” “The Engineer’s Thumb” (Adventures)
Leslie Haynsworth, “Sensational Adventures: Sherlock Holmes and His Generic Past” (Project Muse)
Hound of the Baskervilles
WEEK 3 (2/11)
Hound of the Baskervilles
Watch “A Scandal in Bohemia” ($1.99 on Amazon Instant Video, or you may borrow DVD from me); Hutcheon, Theory of Adaptation, ch. 1
1st group presents: Hutcheon, ch. 2
WEEK 4 (2/18)
Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
Short paper due 2/22
WEEK 5 (2/25)
2nd group presents: McFarlane, Novel to Film, Pt. I
Dibdin, Last Sherlock Holmes Story
3rd group presents: Sanders, Adaptation and Appropriation, chs. 2, 7
WEEK 6 (3/4)
Dibdin, Last Sherlock Holmes Story
Marowitz, Sherlock’s Last Case
WEEK 7 (3/11)
Individual meetings with instructor; prospectus due 3/15
WEEK 8 (3/18)—Spring break
WEEK 9 (3/25)
Chabon, The Final Solution
4th group presents: Stef Craps and Gert Buelens, “Traumatic Mirrorings: Holocaust and Colonial Trauma in Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution” (Project Muse)
Research discussion day—post queries and finds to the Wiki
Annotated bibliography due 3/29
WEEK 10 (4/1)
Cullin, A Slight Trick of the Mind
WEEK 11 (4/8)
Vote by 4/1: watch EITHER the Livanov Hound of the Baskervilles OR the Brett Hound of the Baskervilles, both available on Amazon
5th group presents: Neil Caw, Adapting Detective Fiction: Crime, Englishness and the TV Detectives, ch. 2 (eBrary)
WEEK 12 (4/15)
Watch The Hounds of Baskerville from Sherlock, season 2, available on Amazon
6th group presents: Balaka Basu, “Sherlock and the (Re)Invention of Modernity,” Sherlock and Transmedia Fandom (eBooks Library)
Read through the fictional “blogs” and “tweets” by the Sherlock characters: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018ttws/features/disclaimer
Newman, The Hound of the D’Urbervilles, “Preface,” “A Volume in Vermilion”
WEEK 13 (4/22)
Newman, The Hound of the D’Urbervilles, title story
Gaiman, “A Study in Emerald” (http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories)
Research presentations
WEEK 14 (4/29)
Research presentations
WEEK 15 (5/6)
Research presentations
Final reflections and individual conferencing
Research projects due Monday of finals week