Hebraizing Sherlock Holmes: From a Literary Import to an Ideological Tool

This paper focuses on the literary, ideological and cultural process surrounding the import of the Sherlock Holmes character, in Mandatory Eretz-Israel/Palestine. This, through focusing on the identity of the early translators of Conan-Doyle`s stories to Hebrew, as well as the cultural, social and economic framework in which these translations were created. In this context, I will also review the various reactions within the Jewish national community to the detective`s imported literary image, which some critics strongly opposed, for various ideological reasons.

The second part of the paper will focus on two original Hebrew plays, written towards the end of the Mandate period, and centering on the imported figure of Sherlock Holmes, presented against the background of contemporary Tel Aviv. This, as a tool for ideological protest against the British Mandate authorities, and their attitude towards Jewish immigration to Palestine, and the Jewish national project as a whole.

Dealing with this literary and cultural affair, enables us to recognize a variety of ideological depths that existed in the Hebrew Israeli culture of the Mandate period, as well as it`s complicated relationship with various components of contemporary British literature and culture.









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