Something that occurred to me as we discussed Doyle’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is that these detective stories are functionally conservative texts. That is, the texts are concerned with maintaining a white, middle-class hegemony in Victorian England amidst a time of rapid cultural upheaval as they approach the turn of the century.
I enjoyed listening to the different perspectives of my peers during today's presentations. I often do not gravitate to mystery stories, therefore it was interesting to read the story and look at the images associated with it. One interesting thing I noticed was how Sidney Paget often used his images to express ideologies within their society at the time.
In today's class we discussed Sherlock Holmes, the iconic detective figure in the The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. We specifically discussed Sidney Paget's illustration of the text in The Man with the Twisted Lip" and "The Adventures of the Speckled Band" and how it worked with both the Victorian context and the text itself to create meaning. The discussions were informative as they opened my eyes to a variety of visual cues that I had not noticed.
Today, along with several of my other classmates, I had the pleasure of presenting and analyzing an image from one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. What I most enjoyed about this class was how the atmosphere of collective discussion ended up highlighting and emphasizing points of interest in the text, image, and context that I (as a presenter) had not previously considered. For example, in my question - which touched on visual cues - I had not considered the shading in the image as significant until Dr. Kooistra and my other classmates mentioned it.
Specifically in "The Man With the Twisted Lip," the contrast between a text and its imge become obvious, as do the fin-de-siecle ideologies that both represent. In the image of the man that is described as being a "professional begger," ideologies surrounding homelessness and disability are represented, refecting common stereotypes around both that were common in society at the time of illustrtion and publication.
Edward Moxon and Co. Publishing Firm was a former British publishing company located in London, England, that was founded by Edward Moxon. The publishing company was particularly renowned for publishing lavishly illustrated books and illustrated versions of already notable Victorian literature. In particular, the work of Alfred Tennyson, with which the publishing company had built a working relationship that spanned close to thirty years.
