Sherlock and Transmedia Fandom: Essays on the BBC Series

by Louisa Ellen Stein (Editor), Kristina Busse (Editor), Colin Harvey (Contributor)

The critically-acclaimed BBC television series Sherlock (2010- ) re-envisions Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective for the digital age, joining participants in the active traditions of Sherlockians/Holmesians and fans from other communities, including science fiction, media, and anime. This collection explores the cultural intersections and fan traditions that converge in Sherlock and its fandoms. Essays focus on the industrial and cultural contexts of Sherlock 's release, on the text of Sherlock as adaptation and transformative work, and on Sherlock 's critical and popular reception. The volume's multiple perspectives examine Sherlock Holmes as an international transmedia figure with continued cultural impact, offering insight into not only the BBC series itself, but also into its literary source, and with it, the international resonance of the Victorian detective and his sidekick. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may .

Genres: Nonfiction, Fandom

251 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 2012

About the author

Louisa Ellen Stein is an assistant professor at Middlebury College. The book review editor for both Cinema Journal and Transformative Works and Cultures, she also coedited the essay collections Teen Television and Sherlock and Transmedia Fandom. Her research interests include the media literacies at work in fandom, gender, and generational influences in media culture, and transmedia technology. She is a proud member of Vatican Cameos, the 2013 winning team of the transmedia scavenger hunt GISHWHES (Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen). She lives in East Middlebury, Vermont.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone on the fringe of the Sherlock fandom (oh, who am I kidding, really), I was interested to see how this collection of essays would interpret the idea of transmedia fandom through the lens of the BBC series.

However, my initial thoughts after skimming this book were:

1) Someone needed to proof-read. There are misspellings of several names including producers and actors, though ironically enough, not the titular character.

2) I feel like I just read through an entire book of Tumblr rambles, but with footnotes and in-text citations. There's only so much serious reading about fanfic and crossovers and canon I can take before it starts to feel a like bit like someone just laminated fanrants with a veneer of academia.

[Celeste the bookish dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the few essays I read and I look forward to coming back to reading the rest. For now though I need to pick and choose what is relevant for my dissertation.

[Luis Reséndiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

buenísimo. es una pena gigantesca que no tengamos una edición actualizada para cada temporada: sería un gustazo ver cómo estos autores se enfrentan a los postulados que lanzaron para la primera temporada de esta serie: se cumplen, no se cumplen, qué tanto cambia su idea de sherlock conforme sherlock se va creando. no ha sucedido, pues, y es una lástima, pero queda este libro, valiosa colección de incisivas lecturas a sherlock desde una --a veces inesperada-- multitud de ángulos.

[Emmali Sellner · Rating 3 out of 5]

- Francesca Coppa: “Sherlock as Cyborg - Bridging Mind and Body”
- Lyndsay Faye: “Why Sherlock? Narrator Investment in the BBC Series”
- Matt Hills: “Sherlock’s Epistemological Economy and the Value of “Fan” Knowledge - How Producer-Fans Play the (Great) Game of Fandom”
- Ashley D. Polasek: “Winning “The Grand Game”: Sherlock and the Fragmentation of Fan Fiction”

[Nathalie]

A very interesting book full with essays about Sherlock. I read it for a paper on Popular Culture and will definitely reread it again since I only read a few essays necessary for the paper.

But what I read was very interesting. And well, ... it's Sherlock. ;-)

[Natalie]

Essays on one of my favorite shows Sherlock.

Hmm . . . This ought to be interesting.

[claundici · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull and redundant.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry. Dry dry dry. :/