Section Info: ENGL-279-01

Course Title: Sherlock Holmes and Interpretation

Start Date: 01/27/2026 End Date: 05/12/2026

Term: Spring Semester 2026

Description: This course will explore the Sherlock Holmes stories and their various afterlives as a case study to explore the problematics of interpretation, especially literary interpretation. Some of the questions raised will concern evidence, inductive and deductive thought, applying theoretical paradigms, historical and material contexts, character and narrative, form and genre, popular culture, ideology, and the aesthetic.

Distribution(s): I - Humanities , WI - Writing-Intensive

Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate

Credits:4.00

Faculty	Phone	Email address
Nigel Alderman	413-538-3224	nalderma@mtholyoke.edu

Meeting Dates	Method	Meeting days	Meeting times	Building name	Room	Frequency
01/27/2026 - 05/12/2026	Seminar	Tuesday and Thursday	01:45PM - 03:00PM	TBA	TBA	Weekly

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Requisite Courses
Prereq: ENGL-199 or 8 credits in English.	Take previously	Required

Comments

Additional Comments

Course Tags
ENGL0003	ENGL-TM: Theory and Methods	This course has been approved to count towards the English major's Theory and Methods
ENGL0001	ENGL-HP: Literary History and Period	This course has been approved to count towards the English major's Literary History and Period Disciplinary Perspectives requirement.

Cross-listed Sections

None

Course Availability
Section status: Waitlisted	Capacity: 18	Enrollment: 15	Available: 0	Waitlist: 11

Please note: The "Available" count will equal 0 in a Waitlisted course where spaces in the course have recently opened and students have not yet been moved into them from the waitlist.

BOOK INFORMATION

Book List	Required	Publisher Full Price
Title: The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection (Wordsworth Box Sets) Author: Doyle, Arthur Conan Copyright: 2017 Edition: Volume: ISBN: 9781840227499 Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Lyd.	Required	25.00

Additional Book Comments

This is the complete book list for this class.

Instructor's comments about the book list: These are the required texts. This boxset contains all the stories and novels as they were published in individual collections, as well as the original Strand illustrations.