Leiden University Student Repository

Tsang, Isabel 2020

Pursuing a Semblance of Order

Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)

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Studies show that literature is highly affected by the context in which it is written. Therefore, literature can be analyzed as a case study in order to identify the tendencies of thought in the...Show moreStudies show that literature is highly affected by the context in which it is written. Therefore, literature can be analyzed as a case study in order to identify the tendencies of thought in the time that a story is written. The purpose of this study was to "analyze" how the scientific discourse in (post)modern detective fiction can be related to the changing scientific and philosophical context of the twentieth century. Through an extensive textual analysis of a detective character’s methodology, a picture could be painted of their scientific beliefs. By going through this process for two detective characters, the Victorian Sherlock Holmes and the postmodern William of Baskerville, a comparison between the two may then reveal how the shifts in the philosophical field of science and theory could have affected their methods of theoretical thought that they utilize to interpret the world and subsequently solve cases. The study showed that Sherlock Holmes never questioned the objective and observable nature of evidence and universal causality, whereas in William of Baskerville’s methodology the elusiveness of any attempt to interpret the world was a major focus. Relating these findings to the philosophical ideas that were most dominant in the beginning and the end of the twentieth century showed that this shift correlates with the manner in which society’s confidence in the objectivity of science and knowledge has diminished.Show less