More Than a "Washed-Up Has-Been:" Textual Aspects of the Holmes Icon

Abstract

This paper focuses on textual exemplars from the Sherlock Holmes stories in support of an argument that these texts are just as important in understanding Holmes as a cultural icon as are the visual exemplars found in printed materials, theater, motion pictures, and television. Following a brief summary of the visual exemplars, the author presents six textual examples from the Holmesian canon to support the central argument of this paper—that the "textual logo" or "emblematic wording" is as much a part of the Holmesian iconography as the essential images. In the end, the author concludes that the idea of Holmes as a cultural icon has moved beyond the bounds of the English-speaking world, i.e. is understood in a global context, and that this understanding is rooted in a robust iconography that includes both textual phrases and visual images.