The Scandinavian Invasion: Perspectives on the
Nordic Noir Phenomenon
Edited by William Proctor
The crime
genre has a long-established history in the Scandinavian countries: from the ten-part
series of novels by Sjöwall and Wahlöö featuring Inspector
Martin Beck to Henning Mankell’s critique of Swedish society through the lens
of the Kurt Wallander novels. Since
the publication of Stieg Larsson’s The
Millennium Trilogy in 2005 featuring anti-heroine, Lisbeth Salander, we
have seen the birth of a global phenomenon that has spread across multiple
media windows including literature, film and, most notably perhaps, television.
Authors such as Jo Nesbo (The Snowman),
Lars Kepler (The Hypnotist), Lotte
and Søren Hammer (The Hanging) and more besides, regularly
feature in book store charts and on internet shopping sites. In the UK, BBC Four continue to champion the genre
by airing The Killing, Borgen, and more recently, The Bridge alongside other series, such
as Mammon and Arne Dahl. How can we begin to account for the popularity of
the so-called Nordic Noir genre in the UK and beyond? How has this impacted
other texts outside of the Scandinavian Peninsula? What can audiences and fan
cultures teach us about this phenomenon? More simply, why Nordic Noir and why
now?
The term
itself, Nordic Noir, has also grown beyond its initial ambit to encompass
multiple genres rather than restricted to crime or the police procedural. Arrow
Films releases Scandinavian drama on the Nordic Noir label which includes
crime, but also, other genres, such as history (Anno 1790), for instance. In this way, the genre has expanded in
significant ways as a ‘cultural category’ that is discursively constructed
rather than confined to a limited and finite designation. Following Jason
Mittell, the Nordic Noir genre ‘operates in an ongoing historical process of category
formation genres are constantly in flux, and thus their analyses must be
historically situated’ (2004: xiv).
This collection aims to offer a varied range of perspectives on the Nordic Noir phenomenon and invites scholars to submit abstracts of 300 – 500 words. I am particularly interested in audiences and fan cultures, but other avenues of exploration may include (but not limited to):
·
Genre analysis.
·
History
·
Society and Culture.
·
Literature, Cinema, Television.
·
Non-Crime texts (such as Akta
Manniskor or Anno 1790 and so
forth).
·
Reception and Audiences.
·
Gender.
·
Sexuality.
·
Representation.
·
Influence and impact in other cultures.
·
The new wave of literature.
·
Industry.
· Branding.
All proposals will be considered within the remit of Nordic Noir and its impact. Deadlines for abstracts: October 1st 2014. This will form part of the proposal to Edinburgh University Press who have expressed an interest in the project.
Abstracts to be forwarded to: [log in to unmask]. Please send any queries, ideas etc to the same.
William Proctor,
Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies,
University of Sunderland