Victorian Detectives Revisited: Adaptations and (Re)Visions

elective courses

MA Students registering for the course already have knowledge of the crucial historical, cultural, and literary events of the Victorian era.

Classroom

The class is NOT about Sherlock Holmes. It is intended for students interested in contemporary adaptations and re-imaginings of Victorian detectives. The Scotland Yarders discussed include historic figures – Jonathan Whicher and Inspector Abberline, as well as fictional characters, e.g. Inspector Lestrade.

The analysis of cultural contexts of the source texts and their adaptations (novels, graphic novels, films, and TV series) allows for the multidisciplinary approach, combining the elements of culture, literature, and film, and history studies.

The aim of the course is to compare selected Scotland Yard detectives and their neo-Victorian/postmodern re-imaginings, and discuss them in the nineteenth- and twenty-first-century contexts.

The classes are divided into three groups: background information, the analysis of the characters, and conclusions. The first provides the literary, cultural and historical background, including information on the concepts relevant to the analysis, such as the history of the Metropolitan police or the theory of adaptation.

The main part of the course is devoted to the analysis of the selected detectives: historic figures – Jonathan Whicher and Inspector Abberline, and fictional characters, e.g. Inspector Lestrade. Each character will be examined according to a set pattern: the discussion of the historical/literary data followed by the discussion of a few modern versions – adaptations, appropriations, pastiches or neo-Victorian retellings – supplemented by selected secondary sources.

The analysis of cultural contexts of the source texts allows for the multidisciplinary approach, combining the elements of culture, literature, film, and history studies.

primary sources:

19th-c.

Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone. [1863] 1999.

Detective McLevy's Casebook. Merchiston Publishing, 2012.

Dickens, Charles. 1850. “A Detective Police Party.” Household Words, Volume I, No. 18, 27 July. www.djo.org.uk.

---. 1850. “Three Detective Anecdotes.” Household Words, Volume I, No. 25, 14 September. www.djo.org.uk.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. Selected Sherlock Holmes stories.

“The Police of London”. 1870. Quarterly Review, vol. 129, no. 257. The Dictionary of Victorian London. www.victorianlondon.org.

Transcripts of official documents and press reports of the Ripper case [1888],

http://www.casebook.org.

revisions etc. – selected titles:

Forrester, Andrew. “A child found dead: Murder or no murder?” The Female Detective. The British Library, 2012.

From Hell. Dir. Albert and Allan Hughes. 20th Century Fox, 2001.

Jack the Ripper. Dir. David Wickes.1988.

Meet James McLevy. BBC Radio 4, 2016.

Moore, Allan, Eddie Campbell. From Hell. Knockabout Limited, 2000.

Sherlock. BBC, 2010-.

Sherlock Holmes. & Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Dir. Guy Ritchie. Silver Pictures, 2009, 2011.

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century. Creat. Phil Harnage. 1999.

Ripper Street. Selected episodes. BBC, 2012-.

Summerscale, Kate. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House, Bloomsbury, 2008.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. ITV, 2011-14.

secondary sources

(in the case of the books, the most relevant chapters will be made available to students):

Bell, Neil R.A. Capturing Jack the Ripper. In the Boots of a Bobby in Victorian London. Amberley, 2014.

Gillingham, Lauren. “The Newgate Novel and the Police Casebook.” Charles J. Rzepka, Lee Horsley (ed.). A Companion to Crime Fiction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. pp. 93-104.

Gray, Drew D. London’s Shadows. The Dark Side of the Victorian City. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010.

Durston, Gregory J. Burglars and Bobbies: Crime and Policing in Victorian London. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.

Flanders, Judith. The Invention of Murder. How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime. Harper Press, 2011.

---. “The creation of the police and the rise of detective fiction.” www.bl.uk.

Hadley, Louisa. Neo-Victorian Fiction and Historical Narrative. The Victorians and Us. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Jones, Richard. Jack the Ripper. The Casebook. Andre Deutsch, 2008.

Kohlke, Marie-Luise, Christian Gutleben (ed.). Neo-Victorian Gothic. Horror, Violence and Degeneration in the Re-Imagined Nineteenth Century. Rodopi, 2012.

Milton, Heather. “Sensation and Detection.” Pamela K. Gilbert (ed.). A Companion to Sensation Fiction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. pp. 516-527.

Moore, Allan, Eddie Campbell. The ‘From Hell’ Companion. Knockabout Ltd., 2013.

Moss, Alan, Keith Skinner. The Victorian Detective. Shire Publications, 2013.

Shpayer-Makov, Haia. The Ascent of the Detective. Police Sleuths in Victorian and Edwardian England. Oxford University Press, 2011.

---. “Revisiting the detective in late Victorian and Edwardian fiction: A view from the perspective of police history.” Law, Crime and History, vol. 2 (2011) www.pbs.plymouth.ac.uk.

Warwick, Alexandra, Martin Willis (ed.). Jack the Ripper. Media, Culture, History. Manchester University Press, 2007.

Knowledge

Students will be able to:

- identify and characterize on an advanced level the place and status of neo-Victorianism (K_W01)

- describe on an advanced level the current trends in adaptation studies (K_W02)

- characterise on an advanced level the principles of research design in adaptation studies and the application of methods and tools in formulating research problems (K_W04)

- identify the notions and principles pertinent to intellectual property and copyright (K_W05)

Abilities

Students will be able to:

- apply advanced terminology and notions pertinent to neo-Victorian and adaptation studies (K_U01)

- apply advanced research methodology within adaptation studies, respecting ethical norms and copyright law (K_U02)

- apply knowledge obtained during the course to account for and solve a problem, thereby completing a research task related to adaptation studies (K_U03)

- analyse literary and cultural phenomena and draw generalizations on their basis in the context of societal and historical factors on an advanced level (K_U04)

- discern alternative methodological paradigms within adaptation studies (K_U05)

- find information in various sources and critically assess its usefulness for research (K_U06)

Social competences

Students will be ready to:

- apply knowledge and skills obtained during the course to undertake lifelong learning, as well as personal and professional development (K_K02)

- take responsibility for performing one’s professional duties, with due respect for the work of others, obey and develop the ethical norms in professional and academic settings (K_K03)

- assess critically one’s own knowledge and skills related to analysing Victorian characters (K_K04)

- value cultural heritage and cultural diversity as well as individual opinions (K_K06)

Education at language level B2+.

Oral exam; attendance, preparation for the classes, participation in discussions on primary and secondary sources, presentation.

3 absences are allowed.

Retake: oral exam.