Abstract
Irene Adler is the only female character to outsmart Sherlock Holmes in A.C. Doyle’s fiction (‘A Scandal in Bohemia’) and this chapter explores how she is portrayed in the episode of the BBC television series Sherlock (2012), CBS television series Elementary (2012–2016) and the two Guy Ritchie films, Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). The analysis compares these screen renditions to the appropriation of Adler in the neo-Victorian mystery novel Good Night, Mr Holmes by Carole Nelson Douglas ( 1990) and several earlier screen adaptations. The chapter demonstrates the imbrication of Adler’s on-screen afterlives and the contemporary postfeminist media’s use of the naked, sexualised, female body as the source of women’s power and agency—a linkage that is rendered additionally titillating through its association with the proverbially prudish and restrained Victorian text.
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Filmography
‘A Scandal in Belgravia’ (2012) [TV episode] Dir. Paul McGuigan, screenplay by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Sherlock, UK: BBC.
‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ (1984) [TV episode] Dir. Paul Annett, screenplay by Alexander Baron. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, UK: Granada Television.
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The (1984–1985) [TV series] Created by John Hawkesworth. UK: Granada Television.
‘Diabolical Kind, The’ (2014) [TV episode] Dir. Larry Teng, screenplay by Robert Doherty and Craig Sweeny. Elementary. USA: CBS Broadcasting INC.
Dressed to Kill (1946) [Film] Dir. Roy William Neill, screenplay by Leonard Lee. USA: Universal Studios.
Elementary (2012 – present) [TV series] Created by Robert Doherty. USA: CBS Broadcasting.
‘Female of the Species, The’ (2015) [TV episode] Dir. Lucy Liu, screenplay by Robert Doherty and Jeffrey Paul King. Elementary. USA: CBS Broadcasting INC.
‘Heroine’ (2013) [TV episode] Dir. Seth Mann, screenplay by Robert Doherty and Craig Sweeny. Elementary, USA: CBS Broadcasting INC.
House M. D. (2004–2012) Created by David Shore. USA: Hel & Toe Films et al.
Priklyucheniya Sherloka Kholmsa i doktora Vatsona (trans. ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson’) (1980–1986) [TV series] Dir. Igor Maslennikov, screenplay by Yuly Dunskoy et al. USSR: Gostelradio/Lenfilm Studio Colour.
Sex and the City (1998–2004) [TV series] Created by Darren Star. USA: HBO.
Sherlock Holmes (2009) [Film] Dir. Guy Ritchie, screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson et al. USA: Warner Bros.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) [Film] Dir. Guy Ritchie, screenplay by Michele and Kieran Mulroney. USA: Warner Bros.
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942) [Film] Dir. Roy William Neill, screenplay by Edward T. Lowe, W. Scott Darling and Edmund L. Hartmann. USA: Universal Pictures.
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942) [Film] Dir. John Rawlins, screenplay by Lynn Riggs and John Bright. USA: Universal Pictures.
Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976) [Film] Dir. Boris Sagal, screenplay by Alvin Sapinsley. USA: 20th Century Fox Television.
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) [Film] Dir. Roy William Neill, screenplay by Bertram Millhauser and Lynn Riggs. USA: Universal Pictures.
Sherlok Kholmes i doktor Vatson (trans. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson) (1979) [TV series] Dir. Igor Maslennikov, screenplay by Yuly Dunskoy et al. USSR: Gostelradio/Lenfilm Studio colour.
‘Woman, The’ (2013) [TV episode] Dir. Seth Mann, screenplay by Robert Doherty and Craig Sweeny. Elementary, USA: CBS Broadcasting INC.
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Primorac, A. (2018). Postfeminism and Screen Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes Stories: The Case of Irene Adler. In: Neo-Victorianism on Screen. Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64559-9_2
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