I really enjoyed listening to today's presentations on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and examining the correlation between text and image. It is very obvious to me that every single image that was discussed in class today represents fin-de-siècle ideologies of the late nineteenth century such as issues surrounding imperialism, race, gender, and classism.
The English Countryside by London. This is a place where much can happen in the literary community. And this fact is no different for Christina Rossetti and her creation of Goblin Market which seems to be set in this area of the world, even though the specific location is fictional. This poem, though, is set in an unnamed fairytale countryside at an unspecified time. While that may be the case, the poem does seem to take place in a fantasy universe that is meant to be seen as a parallel of our own.
Something I found interesting while studying Sidney Paget's illustrations for Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories is how relatively un-interperative these illustrations are in comparison with the other illustrations we have looked at so far. Paget seems to pretty faithfully and uncontroversially reproduce the scenes Doyle lays out, with few real novel contributions regarding each scene's narrative.
The link between word and image always fascinates me and it especially fascinates me when we’re looking at literature from a completely different time from the time in which I have lived in my 20 years of life. The Sherlock Holmes' images that we looked at today were quite interesting mostly because of his story that the image told and contrast to the story that the words were telling. It was a great conversation to conduct throughout the class because of the input from all of the different perspectives coming from all the different people in my class.
The class discussions about Sydney Paget’s illustrations for “The Man With the Twisted Lip” by Arthur Conan Doyle struck a lot of interesting thoughts for me. The most prominent image in my mind has to be the illustration of the “Lascar scoundrel”. Our discussion mostly followed the word “Lascar” in relation to the illustration, however I also found the following use of the word “scoundrel” just as intriguing. “Scoundrel” is used as an adjective to further alienate and/or discriminate against the man in the drawing. It suggests that he is a rogue, lying man.
The class discussions about Sydney Paget’s illustrations for “The Man With the Twisted Lip” by Arthur Conan Doyle struck a lot of interesting thoughts for me. The most prominent image in my mind has to be the illustration of the “Lascar scoundrel”. Our discussion mostly followed the word “Lascar” in relation to the illustration, however I also found the following use of the word “scoundrel” just as intriguing. “Scoundrel” is used as an adjective to further alienate and/or discriminate against the man in the drawing. It suggests that he is a rogue, lying man.
In the popular Sherlock Holmes series image, text and context worked together to convey character interactions that help the reader to better understand the scene. When looking specifically at the story The Adventure of the Speckled Band, the black and white illustrations held several similarities that displayed the crime scenes and characters. They worked together to also show perhaps the social class of the characters, family life, and the race. The illustrations all depict specific moments in the narrative, allowing readers to better understand expressions and reactions to the scene.
This week, I led a discussion on an illustration by Sidney Paget for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Man With the Twisted Lip.” This discussion as well as the discussions led by some of my classmates enhanced my understanding of the role these illustrations played in how we understand the text. I found the role these illustration’s played in our understanding of gender in fin-de-siécle literature. It was really interesting analyzing how much agency the women were given in these illustrations.
