The Consulting Artist: Notes on the Hermeneutics of Detection in the Sherlock Holmes Canon.

espanolEl articulo aborda el canon de Sherlock Holmes indagando en la naturaleza hermeneutica del sistema de deteccion que lo articula. A partir de una serie de consideraciones sobre el acto de “revelar,” se exploran las estrategias que conducen a interpretar el personaje de Holmes, no como un detective, sino como un artista, en concreto, un artista decadente, a la manera esteticista de Oscar Wilde. Esta redefinicion global del personaje sirve, ademas, para descubrir el principio postmoderno que gobierna buena parte del movimiento decadentista en general, y del canon de Holmes en particular. Por ultimo, el articulo plantea un analisis de la novela The Sign of Four (1890) a fin de ilustrar como los principios aqui analizados integran parte del atractivo que el personaje de Holmes mantiene en la actualidad. EnglishThe following pages tackle the Sherlock Holmes canon (in the late Victorian period) by probing into the hermeneutical nature embedded in the system of detection it develops. After discussing the notion of “revealing,” the article delves into several strategies that lead up to the construing of Sherlock Holmes not so much as a detective, but as an artist, specifically, a decadent, fin-de-siecle type of artist, in the aesthetic vein of Oscar Wilde. Furthermore, the overall reinterpretation of the character helps disclose the postmodern momentum that sits at the core of the Sherlock Holmes canon in particular and the decadent movement in general. Lastly, the article analyses the novel The Sign of Four (1890) in order to illustrate the general principles posited here and how they bespeak part of the attraction the character of Holmes showcases nowadays.