ABSTRACT“WHAT ONE MAN CAN INVENT, ANOTHER CAN DISCOVER”MUSIC AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES FROMLITERARY GENTLEMAN DETECTIVE TO ON-SCREEN ROMANTIC GENIUSByEmily Michelle BaumgartArguably one of the most famous literary characters of all time, Sherlock Holmes has appeared in numerous forms of media since his inception in 1887. With the recent growth of on-screen adaptations in both film and serial television forms, there is much new material to be analyzed and discussed. However, recent adaptations have begun exploring new reimaginings of Holmes, discarding his beginnings as the Victorian Gentleman Detective to create a much more flawed and multi-faceted character. Using Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original work as a reference point, this study explores how recent adaptors use both Holmes’s diegetic violin performance and extra-diegetic music. Not only does music in these screen adaptations take the role of narrative agent, it moreover serves to place the character of Holmes into the Romantic Genius archetype.
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