Sherlock Holmes on the Radio Airwaves: A Digital Remediation and Analysis
Open Access
- Author:
- Chan, Jacqueline
- Area of Honors:
- Digital Media, Arts, and Technology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Elisa Eileen Beshero-Bondar, Thesis Supervisor
Elisa Eileen Beshero-Bondar, Thesis Honors Advisor
Amy Carney, Faculty Reader - Keywords:
- Sherlock Holmes
Digital Analysis
Digital Remediation
Digital Media Arts and Technology - Abstract:
- The project consists of two corpora based on the stories of Sherlock Holmes, where radio show adaptations of the series are compared against the original publications from Arthur Conan Doyle, specifically noticing the interpellation or the way characters are hailed, as well as societal changes between the years of publication from the 1880s to the 1950s. Louis Althusser’s theory of interpellation is referenced to describe and distinguish the specific ways that characters refer to each other changes in the stories, whether formal or informal. The two text corpora were marked up using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and stitched together with code to produce a condensed display of the changes as shown on the website (https://radioholmes.newtfire.org/). The code allowed for programmatic analysis of the corpora to determine the nature of changes in interpellation as well as changes in the representation of social classes. Most notably, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson do not refer to each other with the same degree of respect or formality, suggesting an inferiority complex from Watson when compared to Holmes. Local police agencies refer to Holmes with a degree of authority and respect, while foreign law enforcement officials view him as lesser than local police. Blatant displays of racism were noted when referring to characters that were not English, as in the portrayal of Brazilians and Germans in the stories. Sexism was also noted in the stories, where women were portrayed negatively regardless of the nature of their character, whether victim or villain, and were often objectified and sexualized as merely the love interest of the main characters.