CFP: Sherlock Holmes, Past and Present (1/15/2013; 6/21-22/2013)

This conference offers a serious opportunity to bring together academics, enthusiasts, creative practitioners and popular writers in a shared discussion about the cultural legacy of Sherlock Holmes. The Strand Magazine and the Sherlock Holmes stories contribute one of the most enduring paradigms for the production and consumption of popular culture in the twentieth- and the twenty-first centuries. The stories precipitated a burgeoning fan culture including various kinds of participation, wiki and crowd-sourcing, fan-fiction, virtual realities and role-play gaming. All of these had existed before but they were solidified, magnified and united by Sherlockians and Holmesians in entirely new ways and on scales never seen before. All popular culture phenomena that followed (from Lord of the Rings to Twilight via Star Trek) shared its viral pattern. This project aims to unpick the historical intricacies of Holmesian fandom as well as offering a wide variety of perspectives upon its newest manifestations. This conference invites adaptors of and scholars on Holmes, late-Victorian writing, and popular culture internationally to contribute to this scholarly conversation. Our aims are to celebrate Conan Doyle’s achievement, to explore some of the reasons behind Holmes’ enduring popularity across different cultures and geographical spaces, and to investigate new directions in Holmes’ afterlife. This conference will precede Holmes’ 160th birthday in 2014. It will launch a new volume of essays on Holmes co-edited by Dr. Jonathan Cranfield and Tom Ue, and form part of the larger celebrations in London and internationally.

Location:

Senate House, London

Dates:

21 and 22 June 2013

Possible Topics:

• Holmes and Detective Fiction
• Holmes and Science
• Becoming Holmes
• Holmes and Gender
• Holmes’ Costume
• Holmes in Retirement
• Holmes and His Boswell
• Holmes and Steampunk
• Holmes and Philosophy
• Holmes and Moriarty
• Holmes computer games
• Holmes/Victoriana in the graphic novel (From Hell, Grandeville...)
• Post-2000 film and television adaptation
• Fan letters addressed to Holmes

Submit proposals of 350 words and biographies of 150 words by email to BOTH Jonathan at J.L.Cranfield@ljmu.ac.uk AND Tom at ue_tom@hotmail.com by 15 January 2013.

Revised CFP: Conan Doyle special issue of the OScholars (12/1/2012)

Articles of between 3000 and 4000 words are sought for a special issue of the OScholars to be edited by Professor Sarah E. Maier. Submissions will be accepted by on the basis of an abstract of approximately 250 words; completed submissions will then be double-blind peer reviewed.

Subjects may include but are not limited to:

• Conan Doyle and his contemporaries
• The literary legacy of Conan Doyle
• The influence of Maupassant on Conan Doyle
• The 'Sherlockian' or 'Holmesian' phenomenon
• London as metonym in the work of Conan Doyle
• Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot
• Conan Doyle and masculinity
• Conan Doyle's depiction of women
• Conan Doyle and imperialism
• Pastiche, parodies and plagiarism
• Conan Doyle across the Century
• Conan Doyle and Adaptation
• Rewriting and Revisioning Doyle

Contributors are encouraged to look beyond the Holmes canon. Abstracts should be sent to Sarah E. Maier at smaier@unb.ca to arrive not later than 1 December 2012.