Sherlock Holmes is one of the most famous characters in literature since 1887 and also became the most frequently adapted character in television. Especially BBC’s Sherlock appeared to take advantage of queercoding and certain ways of advertising its show to get LGBT people to watch it. Inspecting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original works closely it seems to be possible that he intended to make his characters gay. Considering the times he lived in and recent political developments regarding same sex marriage and decriminalisation of same sex relationships it is not far-fetched to believe that show runner Mark Gatiss (an openly gay man) and Steven Moffat intended to finally show healthy LGBT representation. The implied romantic relationship between Holmes and Watson has been supported by interesting theories concerning the narrative. The way the original stories were written make the narrator unreliable. And considering the use of more than 100 romantic tropes in BBC’s Sherlock everything leads to believe that “Johnlock is endgame”. Either that or it is simply a huge joke on the LGBT community that already has enormous consequences. Here will the queer symbolism, theories on the canon, and way of advertising Sherlock be explored and analysed.
About the presenterSpencer Scott Schmaeck
University of Oldenburg, Department of Gender Studies, research focus: gender, media, queer representation, LGBTQIA