The Age of Sherlock Holmes

4.0 credits

This upper-level seminar takes up the history of the Victorian Age through the lens (as it were) of the most famous of all fictional detectives, Sherlock Holmes. By way of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous stories and other historical and contemporary materials, students will investigate such subjects as crime and criminology, urbanization, race, gender, medicine and disease, and empire. The course will also take up modern representations of Sherlock Holmes in film and other media and ask why this fictional character continues to exert such a powerful hold on our imaginations. Course requirements will include weekly writing assignments and a final research project.