Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1.
Background of Study
It is no longer new that people often create movies, TV series, comics, etc.
that are based on a classic literature. Most of those works follow the timeline of the
original works. However, it doesn’t mean that the only way to ‘revive’ a classic
literature is by creating a work based on the same timeline of the original. As
McCaw wrote in his book, Adapting Detective Fiction, that ‘the various national
literary “classics” that were adapted gave the chance so the modern nation can be reimagined in a way honoured the national past, and also offering a contrast to
modernity.’ (2011:1). The writer finds it very interesting that one way to interpret a
classic literature is by giving it a modern sense, e.g. using present timeline with
modern lifestyle.
One of the most popular classic literatures that have been adapted into various
works is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Doyle’s fictional detective
character, Sherlock Holmes, is incredibly popular throughout the ages ever since
Doyle published A Study in Scarlet in 1887. After that, Doyle continued on writing
various cases for Sherlock Holmes, many of them has become greatest detective
fiction known to detective fiction readers all around the world. Sherlock Holmes’s
stories have been translated into numerous languages and writers continue to mould
and rework interpretations of his character to this day in various ways (Cook, 2011).
Sherlock Holmes is a literary work that is categorized as a detective fiction.
The first acknowledged classical detective story appeared in 1841 by Edgar Allan
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Poe (Onderková, 2005). Literary detective fiction, in particular, has been a quite
popular category to be adapted into movies or TV Series. This relates to McCaw’s
explanation:
‘adapting detective fiction engages with both national identity and criminality
in harness, viewing the adaptations themselves as part of a wider cultural
process through which British identity was defined and negotiated, a
collective process of national identity formation inextricably linked to ideas
of a criminal Other: ‘television is probably the major source of imaging in
western industrialized societies today.’ (McCaw, 2011: 3)
And as claimed by Erdman (2009), “crime fiction is a top-ranking literary genre, and
has become part of mainstream culture” and “the pursuit of criminals and the solving
of crime have developed into a cultural code, even a cultural ritual.”
Basically, detective fiction is divided into two subgenres: the Whodunits––or
cosies––and the hard-boiled detective story. The whodunit is one of the most popular
subgenres of detective fiction. It is based on crime––usually a murder––that is
investigated by a detective. The investigation leads to the revelation of the criminal
and the background and motives of the crime (Jalová, 2007). Hard-boiled fiction,
unlike the whodunit, often includes violence and realistic descriptions of fights. The
detective is tough and confronts the danger by himself, often brought in fights and
very often works without any companion (Jalová, 2007). Early on, the Hard-Boiled
detectives were predominately men, with the pulp magazines generally aimed
towards male readers (Howard, 2010).
Sherlock Holmes, which, based on the definition above is a combination of
both the cosies and the hard-boiled detective story, is probably the most popular
detective fiction aside from Agatha Christie’s fictional characters Miss Marple and
Hercule Poirot. Various adaptation of Sherlock Holmes has been made. Starting from
1922, in which a movie of Sherlock Holmes starring John Barrymore was aired, a lot
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of movie adaptations of the famous fictional detective have been made. The newest
movie of Sherlock Holmes adaptation starring Robert Downey Jr. as Detective
Sherlock Holmes has gained US $543,848,418 from box offices (IMDb.com,
retrieved June 20, 2012). The number proves that Sherlock Holmes’s popularity is
still high despite the fact that the work was first made more than a century ago.
Another new adaptation of Sherlock Holmes is a film series written by Steven
Moffat and Mark Gatiss. The film series, titled Sherlock with British actor Benedict
Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, was first aired by BBC in 2010. Unlike any other
Sherlock Holmes adaptation that we have seen, this film series doesn’t show a
Sherlock Holmes from late 1880s with his famous deer-stalking hat and smoking
pipe. Instead, Moffat and Gatiss have interpreted a Sherlock Holmes from our era,
using iPhone and BlackBerry instead of telegraphs; and his trusted sidekick, Dr. John
Watson, blogging instead of typing a journal.
Just like how McCaw quoted George Bluestone who argued in his book,
Novels into Film: The Metamorphosis of Fiction into Cinema, ‘The filmed novel, in
spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from
the novel on which it is based’ (2011: 7), and as McCaw quoted from Brian
McFarlane’s Novel to Film: An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation that ‘[the]
conditions within the film [including television] industry and the prevailing cultural
and social climate [during the adaptation’s production time] are two major
determinants in shaping any film, adaptation or not’ (2011: 8).
Being a fan of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, the writer’s delighted to see that
there are people who are very creative and daring enough to show us how Sherlock
Holmes would finish his cases if he were to be in the present era.
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By using library research, which belongs to qualitative research method, the
writer will be comparing the original Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and Gatiss & Moffat’s Sherlock based on the theory of adaptation and also analysing
how the film series relates to the structuralism theory.
1.2.
Problem Formulation
The problems of this research are:
1. How does the adaptation affect the flow of the story?
2. How does the adaptation differ from the original work?
3. What are the similarities that remind us of the original work?
1.3.
Scope and Limitation
The scope of this research is Sherlock Holmes novels which are adapted into
Sherlock TV series and the limitation will only focus on the episodes The Study in
Pink because it is an adaptation of A Study in Scarlet, in which Sherlock Holmes was
first introduced by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; and The Reichenbach Fall, which is
heavily based on The Final Problem, the story where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
‘killed’ Sherlock Holmes and his mortal enemy, Professor James Moriarty.
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1.4.
Goals and Functions
In coherence to the problems stated above, the goals of this study are:
1. To find out how the adaptatioon affect the flow of the story.
2. To find out the differences between the adaptation and the original work.
3. To find out the similarities between the adaptation and the original work.
Besides the goals above, the function of this research is to provide the idea
that different approach can be used to make a classic literature adaptation more
enjoyable even to non-classic readers.
1.5.
Research Method
This research is conducted by objects to be analysed using library research
which belongs to qualitative research method. First, the writer conducted the research
by watching A Study in Pink and The Reichenbach Fall by Gatiss and Moffat and
maps the sequences of the episodes. Then, the writer read A Study in Scarlet and The
Final Game by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to observe the difference between the
adaptation and the original work.
Next, the writer searches for supporting materials from books, previous
researches, and internet. After collecting them, the writer selects the fitting
information from some scholar books and literature theories book from Binus
University. The writer also looks for online journals regarding similar topic of this
research.
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Last, the writer begins to analyse the problem based on the structuralism
theory. After analysing, the writer makes a conclusion that answers to problem
formulation.