Women, Economics, and Sherlock Holmes's Gift-Labor

Zi-Ling Yan

《intergrams》 18卷2期 (2018/09) Pp. 1-30

摘要

Detective fiction of all types is distinguished by its close attention to work, work which is frequently construed as gift. The gift character of detective labor, which first registers as unremunerated labor, ultimately incurs unpayable debts with ostensibly valuable social functions. But far from genuinely registering as aneconomic, the detective's gift-labor frequently entails investment in specific social interests, which, depending upon the subgenre, tends towards the affirmation or negation of dominant modes of social control. Classical detective fiction, exemplified in this essay by early Sherlock Holmes narratives, functions as such an invested gift, one which reinforces an economic frame producing calculated returns involving the reification and circulation of women. The theoretical framework underpinning this analysis begins from Lévi-Strauss's connection between incest prohibition and the gift; this premise is in turn conjoined to a capitalist worldview through Bataille's analysis of marriage and eroticism. After examining the themes of labor and marriage in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I offer an analysis of three celebrated texts from this collection: ＂A Case of Identity,＂ ＂The Adventure of the Speckled Band,＂ and ＂The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.＂ From these stories, I determine that Holmes consistently buttresses notions of economic exchange whereby women are regarded as forms of capital whose circulation must contend with the blocks posed by recalcitrant father figures. Holmes's intervention forces this ＂gift＂ of women, thereby contesting the obstacles represented by these hoarding fathers.

關鍵字

detective fiction ； labor ； gift ； economics ； marriage ； Arthur Conan Doyle

參考文獻

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Tallon, Philip(ed.),Baggett, David(ed.)(2012).The Philosophy of Sherlock Holmes.UP of Kentucky.