Sherlock's World
Fan Fiction and the Reimagining of BBC's Sherlock
by Ann K. McClellan
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Nov 15 2018 | Archive Date Nov 15 2018
University of Iowa Press | University Of Iowa Press
Talking about this book? Use #SherlocksWorld #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Sherlock Holmes remains more popular than ever some 130 years after the detective first appeared in print. These days, the iconic character’s staying power is due in large part to the success of the recent BBC series Sherlock, which brings the famous sleuth into the twenty-first century.
One of the most-watched television series in BBC history, Sherlock is set in contemporary London, where thirtysomething Sherlock and John (no longer fussy old Holmes and Watson), alongside New Scotland Yard, solve crimes with the help of smartphones, texting, online forums, and the internet. In their modernization of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s nineteenth-century world, Sherlock creators Stephen Moffatt and Mark Gatiss make London as much a character of their show as the actors themselves. The highly stylized series has inspired an impassioned fan community in Britain, the U.S., and beyond. Fans create and share their writings, which reimagine the characters in even more dramatic ways than the series can.
Interweaving fan fiction studies, world-building, and genre studies, Ann McClellan examines the hit series and the fan fiction it inspires. Using Sherlock to trace the changing face of fan fiction studies, McClellan’s book explores how far fans are willing to go to change the Sherlockian canon while still reinforcing its power and status as the source text. What makes Sherlock fanfic Sherlockian? How does it stay within the canon even while engaging in the wildest reimaginings? Sherlock’s World explores the boundaries between canon, genre, character, and reality through the lenses of fan fiction and world-building. This book promises to be a valuable resource for fan studies scholars, those who write fan fiction, and Sherlock fans alike.
Advance Praise
“Sherlock’s World offers a nuanced look into Sherlock fan authorship, considering fan fiction as art, literature, story world, and cultural fabric. This book will serve as a rich resource to fans and scholars of the great detective, and to anyone interested in the study of fandom and fan fiction.”—Louisa Ellen Stein, author, Millennial Fandom
“Sherlock’s World is groundbreaking in its treatment of fan fiction as literary texts rather than sociological phenomena, and offers a comprehensive survey of the (often startling) range of fan engagements with the BBC’s Sherlock. With echoes of D. A. Miller’s argument that the experience of the Victorian novel was constituted as much by breaks in the reading as by textual content, McClellan suggestively argues that the increasing temporal gaps between seasons of Sherlock had a vital role in promoting fan creativity and experience. McClellan persuasively sees fan fictions as sophisticated reflections on the relationship between actor and character, postmodernism and Victorianism, and author and reader. The book’s theoretically informed treatment of Sherlock’s alternative worlds and parallel universes will make it a valuable resource for future fan culture and Holmesian studies.” —Christopher Pittard, University of Portsmouth
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781609386160 |
| PRICE | $40.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 286 |
Featured Reviews
Mai M, Reviewer
Sherlock's World: Fan Fiction and the Reimagining of BBC's Sherlock is a fascinating read about the re-imagined Sherlock Holmes of the BBC series and fandom. Sherlock Holmes is a good example that fandom (and fanfiction) isn't just a phenomenom of modern media only, fans always liked to ask "What if?". I strongly believe that re-telling stories for our own entertainment (aka: fanfiction) contributes to them becoming more than stories, but lore, culture, legend.
The book looks deeper into what makes something canon; it shows interesting aspects of fanfiction like alternate universes, slash fiction and gender-swap, real person fiction (although that one makes my skin crawl...sorry, that's just my opinion), transmedia (Sherlock- the series - is a great example how different kinds of media work together in terms of world-building) and role-play. Very interesting read, not just for Sherlock fans but anyone interested in fandom and world-building in fiction.
Ioanna T, Reviewer
Ideal for the fans of Sherlock, especially the series fans, the book describes and analyzes the BBC series of Sherlock. The author creates a thorough study that revolves around content, world building but also fan fiction. This is a well-researched study, and was a very interesting read. Fans of Sherlock's fandom will certainly appreciate this.
Han H, Educator
It reads like a dissertation of the highest and most engaging standard. It educates, challenges and leaves you questioning. The only shame is that it wasn’t published three years ago as I feel there would be a bigger audience for it and I would love for this book to do well.
Lauralee J, Reviewer
I love the BBC series Sherlock. This book sheds light on FanFiction.Net and how it is a staple of the tb show. I like how they are both interconnected and how it made it popular. I highly recommend this for Sherlock fan.
Kimberly O, Educator
I enjoyed the in-depth look at Sherlock.fan studies, the look at fan fiction was tremendously interesting. Ms. McClellan wrote an excellent, nuanced study that could be enjoyed in equal measure by fans and academics.
Ana-Maria G, Reviewer
Nothing is more inspiring than people studying and writing about topics they are passionate about, introducing the stern academia to a carefully-curated slice of contemporary media!
Fortunately, Ann K. McClellan’s “Sherlock's World” does a little more than that: I was pleasantly surprised by the well-researched introductory chapter, a look at world-building with loads of references from canonical fantasy authors, such Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, to pointing out the fact that fantasy is not the only genre with storyworlds. This is a great way to legitimize her academic endeavour, but to also show those more familiar with the BBC’s interpretation of the nineteenth-century texts that such things hadn't come out of thin air.
Fanfiction is often frowned upon in the publishing industry, yet it’s become a widely spread response from readers of fantasy and/or consumers of TV shows like BBC's Sherlock. The chapter titled “Sherlock’s Alternative Universe Fanfiction” was, by far, my favourite. The best thing about this highly nuanced study is that, whether or not you’re an active part in the fandom, it challenges the way you will interact with both the original text and with the contemporary interpretation in the future and encourage you to take a look at websites such as fanfiction.net with an open mind. Who knows, maybe your favourite characters or movies have some highly imaginative re-interpretations hidden in their archive?
Readers who liked this book also liked:
