Död och dagishämtningar : en kvantitativ analys av det tidiga 2000-talets svenska kriminallitteratur

• This study investigates contemporary Swedish crime fiction through a quantitative content analysis of 116 Swedish crime fiction novels published 1998–2015 and written by the most successful authors in the genre. The study discusses killers, murder motives, victims, murder methods, and detectives and other protagonists, with the aim of identifying social patterns and recurring themes.In general, these novels are dominated by female protagonists and put much emphasis on portrayals of the main characters in their struggle to combine work and family life. This simultaneous shift to a female perspective and a focus on everyday life stands out in comparisons to earlier Swedish crime fiction. The novels are furthermore permeated by a partial realism, where depictions of everyday life, settings and contemporary details are realistic and concrete, while depictions of killers, murder motives, murder methods and victims most often are imaginative, spectacular and sensational, and thus in most cases show few similarities with actual crimes in contemporary Sweden. Also, the selection is characterised by a dominance of normality, where main characters and innocent victims affirm “normality” (they are most often middle class, white, heterosexual Swedes without immigrant background), whereas killers and unsympathetic victims are depicted as deviants in stark contrast to normality.The content often seems to be chosen by how well it works in relation to plot lines and genre requirements. Therefore, it is argued that both contextualising and functionalistic perspectives need to be taken into account when analysing depictions of society in contemporary crime fiction. With such a dual-vision approach, the ostensible realistic social criticism in the genre to a high extent appears to be a story about the genre.

Subject headings

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

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

Keyword

Swedish crime fiction

quantitative content analysis

sociology of literature

popular fiction

genre functions

social criticism in literature

Literature

Litteraturvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

bok (subject category)