<div>This dissertation explores the figure of the mad scientist in Victorian literature through some of the most enduring literary examples, viewing these works not as anti-science cautionary tales but rather thought experiments for dealing with hazardous scientists and hazardous science. It makes a claim for a spectrum of hazardous scientists from the beneficial to the truly mad and argues that the primary difference between them is a matter of socialization. It argues that these novels advocate for the scientist and society to negotiate and co-construct a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship.<br></div>

This thesis has conducted an extensive character analysis of Sherlock Holmes by comparing the original, authentic detective, as he appears in a corpus consisting of Conan Doyle’s collected works about Holmes, to the characterisation in three select period pastiches. The aim was to analyse to what extent the true characterisation of the famous sleuth has survived in contemporary adaptations, more specifically in the three texts, Sherlock Vs. Dracula (1976), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes (1979) and Sherlock Holmes and the Angel of the Opera (1994), where the detective encounters equally well-known fictional characters. The novel approach of combining corpus stylistic quantitative methods of characterisation with a qualitative literary approach of identifying similar stylistic and narratological features of characterisation efficiently facilitated an illustration on how Conan Doyle’s round and complex character has endured through adaptations and reimaginings. The corpus investigation on the Sherlock Conan Doyle Corpus supplied an encompassing image of the character, and revealed characteristics absent from the inherent cultural perception. The subsequent cross-comparison between the original in contrast to contemporary characterisations presented clear deviations to the character and further demonstrated a tendency to exaggerate select, generic features that complement the narrative and plot of the integrated novels. Overall, this study concludes that Sherlock Holmes remains the character who travels over time and genres, albeit with a reduced complexity as the respective characterisations in each of the pastiches to various degrees have modified core characteristics significant to the mind-modelling process. That is, through the process of adaptational alterations, the detective has become a flat character. Enough features persist for him to be recognisable and compelling, yet Sherlock Holmes in his entirety subsists merely as a caricature of his original self.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories about the character Sherlock Holmes are known by many people, they excited readers when he first released the stories in different magazines, and they still excite readers to this day. This essay aims to explore the social dimensions in Conan Doyle’s first and last Sherlock Holmes story by searching for indications of social status and formality. The theory that is being used is the new historicist approach, where there is a contrast between the literary and the non-literary texts, meaning that the stories may be affected by what happened in the society when the stories were written. The conclusion for the essay is that characters in both stories are in the beginning not of a higher class, rather a middle class, whilst in the last they become less dependent on one another, they do not need to live together anymore but, they choose to keep working together. Lastly, this essay is about the Swedish classroom and gives examples of how a teacher could use these stories in their classrooms.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of History. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Sherlock Holmes har adapterats till film i över hundra år. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att genomföra en studie om adaptioner av Sherlock Holmes romanen The Hound of the Baskerville har anpassats för sin samtid mellan 1939 och 2012. Analysen utgår därmed ifrån Sidney Lanfields adaption ifrån 1939 med Basil Rathbone, Terence Fishers adaption ifrån 1959 med Peter Cushing. Slutligen TV-serien Sherlocks adaption ifrån 2012 med Benedict Cumberbatch i rollen som Holmes. Den grundläggande teorin för uppsatsen är adaptionsteori, för att få fram hur Sir Arthur Conan Doyles roman har ändrats och anpassats för att bli lämplig för sin samtida publik. Analysen är uppdelad i tre kapitel, i vilka olika delar av det som har adapterats analyseras. De olika kapitlen handlar om filmskaparna har omarbetat och tolkat Doyles roman för sin samtid? Har de tolkat och omarbetat de kvinnliga karaktärerna för sin samtids publik? Har Sherlock själv utvecklats mellan de tre adaptionerna? Slutsats omfattar sedan en diskussion om uppsatsens resultat, baserad på Linda Hutcheons teori om adaption. / Sherlock Holmes have been adapted to film for over a hundred years. The purpose with this essay is to conduct a study of how adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles have been adjusted between 1939 and 2012, to make the story more appropriate for their contemporary audience. The analysis is based on Sidney Lanfields 1939 adaptation with Basil Rathbone, the 1959 Terence Fisher adaptation with Peter Cushing and the 2012 adaptation for the TV series Sherlock. The Essay is based in adaption theory, to determine how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel has been changed and adjusted to make the story more appropriate for the contemporary audience of the adaptation in question. The analysis is divided into three chapters, which examines different aspects of what has been adapted. The different chapters analyze how the filmmakers have reworked and interpreted Doyle’s novel for their time, how they have interpreted and reworked the female characters and how Sherlock himself has evolved between the three adaptations.

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Detective fiction highlights those qualities of masculinity that are most valuable to a contemporary culture. In mysteries a cultural context is more thoroughly revealed than in any other genre of literature. Through the crimes, an audience can understand not only the fears of a particular society but also the level of calumny that society assigns to a crime. As each generation has needed a particular set of qualities in its defense, so the detective has provided them. Through the detective's response to particular crimes, the reader can learn the delineation of forgivable and unforgivable acts. These detectives illustrate positive masculinity, proving that fiction has more uses than mere entertainment. In this paper, I trace four detectives, each from a different era. Sherlock Holmes lives to solve problems. His primary function is to solve a riddle. Lord Peter Wimsey takes on the moral question of why anyone should detect at all. His stories involve the difficulty of justifying putting oneself in the morally superior position of judge. The Mike Hammer stories treat the difficulty of dealing with criminals who use the law to protect themselves. They have perverted the protections of society, and Hammer must find a way to bring them to justice outside of the law. The Kate Martinelli stories focus more on the victims of crime than on the criminals. Martinelli discovers the motivations that draw a criminal toward a specific victim and explains what it is about certain victims that makes villains want to harm them. All of these detectives display the traditional traits of the Western male. They are hunters; they protect society as a whole. Yet each detective fulfills a certain cultural role that speaks to the specific problems of his or her era, proving that masculinity is a more fluid role than many have previously credited.