No Ghosts Need Apply: Gothic Influences in Criminal Science, the Detective and Doyle's Holmesian Canon

This work highlights how the presence of Gothic elements in the Holmesian Canon problematizes the normative action of the detective. It extamines the anxieties which accompanied the changing universe of Victorian and Edwardian society in the context of the development of criminal science. The work investigates the evolution of the Gothic genre from its outset to its fin-de-siècle articulations, and offers a theoretical overview of the complex scenery of fin-de-siècle English literature and its profound impact on the cultural milieu. Sensation novels are considered as the link between the Gothic genre and detective fiction, with specific reference to the novels of Wilkie Collins, and his depiction of female confinement as well as private detection. Victorian society is analysed, with a focus on the climate of social tension that preceded the outbreak of the First World War. Specifically, the Gothic elements of intrigue and secret societies in their Holmesian rewriting. The Victorian themes of the integrity of family and of the evolution of female identiy are considered in their problematic development.