Queer (mis)recognition in the BBC’s Sherlock

Greer, S. (2015) Queer (mis)recognition in the BBC’s Sherlock. Adaptation, 8(1), pp. 50-67. (doi: 10.1093/adaptation/apu039)

Abstract

This essay considers the representation of sexuality and male intimacy in Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ BBC series Sherlock. Noting a contemporary emphasis on visibility as a paradigm for the televisual depiction of non-heterosexual identities, I read Moffat and Gatiss’ adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories in respect of a late Victorian epistemology of knowledge centred on what can be ‘seen’ alongside Eve Sedgwick’s account of the homosocial as a space in which relations between men remain heavily freighted. In doing so, I argue that the broadly post-homophobic cultural space imagined within Sherlock presents new questions for the depiction and reception of same-sex desire and relationships between men.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Greer, Dr Stephen
• Authors: Greer, S.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
• Journal Name: Adaptation
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 1755-0637
• ISSN (Online): 1755-0645