Nordic Noir

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Nordic noir range in a library in Helsinki

Nordic Noir is a literary and film genre that includes crime fiction , films and TV series from the Nordic , especially Scandinavian , countries. Terms often used synonymously are Scandinavienkrimi , Nordic Crime , Nordic Killing , Scandinavian Noir and Scandi Noir . In German, the older term Swedish thriller is also used for marketing purposes. The best-known works of the genre include Henning Mankell's novels about investigator Kurt Wallander and Stieg Larsson's Millennium Romance trilogy, as well as the corresponding film adaptations. The genre became particularly popular from the mid-1990s through numerous television series. The authors also used the stories to exercise social criticism, for example criticizing the image of Scandinavian countries as welfare states .

history

The novel series Roman about a crime by the Swedish author duo Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö with the main character Martin Beck is seen as the origin of the genre in the literary field. In addition to the incidence of harsh social criticism, what was new about the novels was that the investigators were not portrayed as superheroes, but as characters full of personal and family problems. The novels published from 1991 by the Swede Henning Mankell about the commissioner Kurt Wallander count as genre-justifying. Other important representatives of the genre are Leif GW Persson with novels about the investigator Lars Martin Johansson ; Jo Nesbø , whose novels with the protagonist Harry Hole appeared from 1997, and Stieg Larsson with the Millennium Trilogy, published posthumously from 2005 onwards, about the journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the hacker Lisbeth Salander .

In particular, the novels of Mankell, Persson and Larsson achieved considerable circulation figures. Mankell's books, for example, sold around 30 million copies in 40 countries within 25 years, and Larsson's three novels sold 75 million copies in 50 countries within a decade. The novels, through the multitude of people who consumed them, formed an essential foundation for the genre's success in film and television since the mid- 1990s . Some novels or characters from them have been adapted for films or television series. The film adaptations include the television series Mankells Wallander (2005-2013) and the Swedish Millennium film series from 2009/2010, which are also shown in cinemas . There were also cinematic works that were not based on novels, including the Danish television series Commissioner Lund - Das Verbrechen (2007–2012), the Danish-Swedish television series Die Brücke - Transit in den Tod (2011–2018) and the Swedish film Die Trace of the Hunters (1996), which was continued with another movie (2011) and a television series (2018).

It was not until 2010 that Nordic Noir came up as a term for Scandinavian crime novels - in analogy to the already established terms Roman noir , Film noir and Neo-Noir . According to the specialist literature, he was first influenced by the Scandinavian Department of University College London by initiating a blog and a book club in March of that year that focused on Nordic Noir . That same year, the British press picked up the term and the BBC released a documentary on the genre that bears the name in the title. About a year after the documentary was released, the website nordicnoir.tv went online, with which the English distribution company Arrow Films began to market Scandinavian TV crime novels . This is one of the reasons why Nordic Noir counts as a brand .

From the 1990s on, television broadcasters from Germany also took part in the production, financing and distribution of filmic Nordic noir works. For example, ZDF co-produced the Danish-German television series Der Adler - Die Spur des Verbrechens (2004–2006) and ARD on Mankells Wallander . Since 2007, especially the ZDF and its distribution company ZDF Enterprises has been involved in many Nordic crime novels, including the series Der Kommissar und das Meer , Kommissarin Lund - Das Verbrechen (both since 2007), Die Brücke - Transit in den Tod and Trapped - Captured in Iceland (since 2015). The media scientists Hansen and Waade highlighted the activities of ZDF Enterprises as "extremely important" for the international distribution of Nordic Noir .

Nordic noir works from the Nordic countries have also been adapted for films and television series in other countries. These include the British television film series Kommissar Wallander (2008-2015) and the US screen adaptations of novels from the Millennium trilogy, beginning in 2011. The works that were made outside the Nordic countries, but influenced by Nordic noir works and as Works in the genre advertised include the British television series Marcella (since 2016).

Characteristics

Topics and content

An essential characteristic of works of the genre is social criticism, which is expressed in them, or, as media scholar Glen Creeber calls it, "an interest in uncovering the dark flaws of contemporary society". An important example is the Millennium Trilogy, in which the journalist Blomkvist acts as a reflection of the former journalist Stieg Larsson, whose concern was the disclosure of right-wing extremism in Sweden. According to other recipients, the genre does away with the long idealized image of Scandinavia as a “haven of welfare and equality”, it dismantles “the image of the conflict-free Scandinavian welfare state ” and a successful middle ground between capitalism and communism , for which the Nordic societies from the 1950s became known. The genre shows the Nordic world in a way that was previously unknown and did not want to know, for example in a story from the Wallander series in which the authorities discover five neglected children in a family. In this example, the question of how this could happen is favored over the question of who the culprit is, as is typical of the genre.

aesthetics

One of the most important characteristics of Nordic noir works is a film noir -like aesthetic characterized by weak lighting, which is accompanied by a “slow and melancholy narrative pace”. The problems raised in the plot are also reflected through the settings; mysterious and inhospitable landscapes are often understood as symbolizing the psychological well-being of their investigators, who are repeatedly burdened with problems. For example, Henning Mankell used descriptions of the weather in his novels to express the feelings of his characters or the progress of the investigation, or Åsa Larsson's characters have a symbiotic relationship with the landscape in the far north, the setting of Larsson's novels.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Rudolf Hermann: The crime genre Nordic Noir leads directly into the abyss of the Scandinavian psyche , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from August 2, 2019, accessed on Feb. 29, 2020
  2. ↑ a b c Hansen and Waade 2017, p. 1 ff.
  3. ↑ Hansen and Waade 2017, p. 112 f.
  4. ↑ David Parkinson: The Hunters , in: RadioTimes , accessed Feb. 29, 2020
  5. ↑ Hansen and Waade 2017, p. 4 f.
  6. ↑ Hansen and Waade 2017, pp. 150–152
  7. ↑ Hansen and Waade 2017, p. 294: "extremely important"
  8. ↑ Hansen and Waade 2017, p. 300 f.
  9. ↑ Glen Creeber: Killing Us Softly. Investigating the Aesthetics, Philosophy and Influence of Nordic Noir Television , in: Journal of Popular Television No. 1/2015 (3rd year), quoted from Hansen and Waade 2017, p. 17, original quote: “an interest in uncovering the dark underbelly of contemporary society "
  10. ↑ Rudolf Hermann: Head of Kim Wall found: gruesome as in a television thriller , in: NZZ from Oct. 9, 2017, accessed on Feb. 29, 2020
  11. ↑ a b Kerstin Bergman: The Captivating Chill: Why Readers Desire Nordic Noir , in: Scandinavian-Canadian Studies 2014 (22nd year), pp. 80–89
  12. ↑ Glen Creeber: Killing Us Softly. Investigating the Aesthetics, Philosophy and Influence of Nordic Noir Television , in: Journal of Popular Television No. 1/2015 (3rd year), quoted from Hansen and Waade 2017, p. 17, original quote: "slow and melancholic pace"