Probing Pioneer Girl Sleuths : Puck Larsson and Nancy Drew in 1950s Girls' Book Series in Sweden

• In Sweden, girl sleuth series in juvenile fiction appeared as a new phenomenon in the early 1950s. Deducing American influence, I compare the initial novel in the first series originally written in Swedish, Uno Modin’s Puck jagar en skugga (1951) with the first novel about Nancy Drew, Carolyn Keene’s The Secret of the Old Clock, launched in Swedish the year after. The analysis shows that although there are some basic similarities between the heroines, their contexts and agency significantely diverge. Also, whereas the Nancy Drew story is narrated in a fable-like manner, the Puck story has realist traits and a more advanced and ”literary” language. These differences, together with the post-war time context, help explain the immense popularity of the Nancy Drew novels in relation to the Swedish series.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Literary Studies (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Konst (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Girls' books

Uno Modin

The Puck stories

Nancy Drew

Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew mystery stories

Women detectives in literature.

Literature

Litteraturvetenskap

Literature

litteraturvetenskap

Girls' books

Uno Modin

The Puck stories

Nancy Drew

Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew mystery stories

Women detectives in literature

intertextuality

genre literature

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)