The Failure of Animal Symbolisation in the Plantationocene of “The Adventure of the Crooked Man” (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Keywords:
Sherlock Holmes, Animal studies, Indian Rebellion of 1857, Colonialism, PlantationAbstract
This paper argues that “The Adventure of the Crooked Man” (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle uses animal symbolism, especially of snakes, birds and mongooses, to express hopes and fears at the time of British imperial decline, concerning the public memory of the Sepoy rebellion in 1857. However, the short story’s attempt to use the mongoose to support imperial authority symbolically fails, as the mongoose plays two contradictory roles, as the hero against snake-like rebels and as the unsuccessful attacker of a caged canary, which popularly symbolised Victorian women. Furthermore, reading the mongoose symbol in the context of colonial plantations, this paper argues that the commodification of the mongoose to perpetuate colonial power disrupts the colonial symbolisation of the mongoose in both aspects and exposes the British Empire as the origin of racist and anthropocentric violence.
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