Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
English
Date of Award
12-2017
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Michael Cody
Committee Members
Judith Slagle, Mark Baumgartner
Abstract
This thesis reexamines the beginnings of Swedish hardboiled crime literature, in part tracking its lineage to American culture and unpacking Swedish identity. Following the introduction, the second chapter asserts how this genre began as a form of escapism, specifically in Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö’s Roseanna. The third chapter compares predecessor Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep with Roseanna, and how Sweden’s greater gender tolerance significantly outshining America’s is reflected in literature. The fourth chapter examines how Henning Mankell’s novels fail to fully accept Sweden’s complicity in neo-Nazism as an active component of Swedish identity. The final chapter reveals Helene Tursten’s Detective Inspector Huss engaging with gender and racial relations in unique ways, while also releasing the suppressive qualities found in the Swedish identity post-war. Therefore, this thesis will better contextualize the onset of the genre, and how its lineage reflects the fruits and the damages alike in the Swedish identity.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Hartsell, Bradley, "Projecting Culture Through Literary Exportation: How Imitation in Scandinavian Crime Fiction Reveals Regional Mores" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3323. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3323
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
Included in
European Languages and Societies Commons, Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Scandinavian Studies Commons