Swedish crime fiction

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This article gives an overview of the history, authors, works, influences and peculiarities of Swedish crime fiction , from its origins at the end of the 19th century to its modern representatives with works that - primarily triggered by the crime novels of the author duo Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö in the mid- 1960s - are often characterized by social criticism and have also had great success with readership from other countries. In German about since the is 1990 years as a synonym for the recent Swedish crime literature the term Sweden crime consistently.

history

The first Swedish detective novel is considered to be the novel Stockholms-detektiven ("The Detective of Stockholm") , published in 1893 by Fredrik Lindholm under the pseudonym Prins Pierre . However, crime fiction did not enjoy a high reputation in Sweden around 1900, which is why other authors published their crime fiction under a pseudonym. The first successful crime writer from Sweden was Frank Heller (pseudonym for Martin Gunnar Serner) from the 1910s , who had himself been convicted of bank fraud. However, his crime novels are not set in Sweden, but in England and the Netherlands. The crime novels that Stieg Trenter published from the 1940s onwards are set in a Swedish milieu . He wrote the first 22 books alone, the following with the assistance of his wife Ulla . The second important exponent of Swedish crime literature in the period after 1945 was Maria Lang , whose works are often characterized by Swedish natural romance, complex intrigues and a murderous motif with a sexual background. Her debut Mördaren ljuger inte ensam caused some controversy because two of the main characters were in a homosexual relationship. Together with Sune Lundquist alias Vic Suneson and Hans-Krister Rönbolm , Trenter and Lang were for a time considered the Big Four ( De Fyra Stora ) of Swedish crime literature.

The founder of social criticism Swedish thrillers, for the term often today Sweden Crime is used, the Swedish author pair applies Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö . With their crime novel series Novel about a crime involving the investigator Martin Beck from 1965 to 1975, they became a model for later Swedish crime authors. Since Frank Heller they were the first representatives of this genre from Sweden, which were also very successful abroad and were translated into several languages. This triggered a real boom in Sweden: The number of Swedish crime novels rose sharply in the 1960s and 1970s; at the same time, the genre gradually gained prestige in literary criticism. The exemplary nature of Sjöwall and Wahlöö can also be seen in the fact that various well-known crime authors (Mankell, Nesser, Stieg Larsson, Arne Dahl) put their crime series, such as the novel about a crime, into ten episodes.

Björn Hellberg , who works full-time as a sports reporter, is one of the fathers of the newer Swedish crime fiction, with his 23 episode series, founded in 1981, around the detective Sten Wall, of which individual episodes have also been translated into German. Like Mankell, Hellberg also devotes himself to the everyday, but cultivates a more playful approach to the genre than this.

In the German-speaking countries, the Swedish thrillers are primarily known through the books by the author Henning Mankell . The novels about Commissioner Wallander , published between 1991 and 2010, are among the most famous Swedish thrillers. Thanks to the detailed descriptions of the locations, they also became a tourist factor in Skåne , where they are located. Between 2005 and 2007, the posthumously published Millennium Trilogy by the author Stieg Larsson attracted international enthusiasm among readers of Swedish detective novels. Arne Dahl (pseudonym for Jan Lennart Arnald) also had international success with his A-group series; he was also awarded the (International) German Crime Prize twice. The Swedish crime writers , who are also very successful abroad, include the former high school teacher Håkan Nesser , who is best known for his novels about the characters of the inspectors Van Veeteren and Barbarotti, and the couple Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril and Alexander Ahndoril , who have been under the Publish detective novels using the pseudonym Lars Kepler . The author duo Erik Axl Sund also achieved an international bestseller with the Kråkflickan trilogy , which has been translated into several languages. A number of crime fiction writers, namely Camilla Läckberg , Åsa Larsson , Liza Marklund and Viveca Sten, became very well known - also outside of Sweden . After 2000, the number of Swedish crime writers whose works translated into German are available rose to over 100. The fact that many works were made into films also contributed to the international fame of the Swedish crime novels, in some cases even - like the Wallander novels by Mankell - multiple.

One reason for the particular success of crime fiction in Sweden is that this genre, which was still ostracized at the beginning of the 20th century, was recognized relatively early in the Swedish literary scene. As early as 1957, the first review of Swedish crime literature appeared. In 1971, some crime writers and critics founded the Svenska Deckarakademin (Swedish Crime Academy) with the aim of raising the quality of the country's crime literature. Since then, it has awarded the renowned Swedish Crime Prize in various categories. In 1972 the crime magazine Jury came out for the first time and soon enjoyed great popularity in literary circles. The commercial success of many Swedish thrillers thanks to translations, often first into German, certainly contributed to talented and respected writers turning to the crime thriller genre.

The term Swedish thriller

The term Swedish crime thriller (also Sweden crime thriller ) has been used in German-speaking countries since the 1990s by publishers for Swedish detective novels in advertising and is used variously as subtitles in German translations; some libraries use it as a catchphrase for cataloging detective novels, as does the online culture magazine Perlentaucher . The literature portal www.schwedenkrimi.de has existed since 2001 . After 2000, the designation also became established for the film adaptations of Swedish crime novels, but also generally for crime films set in Sweden. The term Swedish thriller is also used regularly in German literary studies.

In addition to the geographical reference, there are also content-related features that define the Swedish thriller: They are not limited to the description of a crime and its investigation, but represent the crime against the background of a rather gloomy, critically colored picture of Swedish society. Many Swedish crime novels, namely by the most famous authors such as Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson , are not stingy with descriptions of brutal acts of violence. And the investigators often tend to be sad, but there are a number of exceptions, such as Inspector Barbarotti at Håkan Nesser . The term Swedish thriller appears occasionally for thrillers that have no relation to Sweden, in the sense of a certain genre.

Well-known Swedish crime writers

Scandinavian thriller

From the increased demand for detective stories from Sweden also authors from other Scandinavian countries benefited, especially from Denmark, Norway and Iceland, which is why today the term Scandinavia crime occurs and is also used in bookstores (though less often than Scandinavian crime and thrillers from Scandinavia ). Often in the German-speaking area, the term Swedish thriller also subsumes works by authors from other Scandinavian countries, such as on the website www.schwedenkrimi.ch.

Since 1992 is a year for the best crime novel of Scandinavia Glasnyckel called Scandinavian Crime Fiction Prize awarded.

See also

literature

  • Elisabeth Böker: Scandinavian bestsellers on the German book market. Analysis of the current literature boom. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2018. ISBN 978-3-8260-6464-7 (dissertation, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen )
  • Christine Farhan: Intercultural role models: The Swedish thriller as a means of identification for women in Germany, in: Ernest WB Hess-Lüttich et al. (Ed.): Communication and Conflict. Cultural concepts of intercultural German studies , Frankfurt a. M. 2009, p. 439ff. ISBN 978-3-631-58342-5
  • Jost Hindersmann (Ed.): Fjords, Elche, Murderers: the Scandinavian detective novel . NordPark, Wuppertal 2006, ISBN 978-3-935421-16-4 . ( Excerpts on google.books )
  • John-Henri Holmberg (Ed.): Cold shadows. Stories by Sweden's most famous suspense authors Åke Edwardson, Åsa Larsson, Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, Håkan Nesser uva , Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-641-13740-3 (overview of the development of Swedish crime literature in the epilogue; excerpts from google.books )
  • Christine Frisch: Sympathetic gender constructions in the 'Swedish thriller'. An explanation for the success , in: Den okände (?) Grannen. Tysklandsrelaterad forskning i Sverige, Swedish Perspectives. Writings of the Center for German Studies 4, Huddinge 2005, p. 125ff. ISBN 91-974662-3-9 ( online ; accessed March 9, 2020).
  • Jeanette Schröter: Religion in the Swedish detective novel. The Swedish thrillers by Larsson, Mankell and Nesser . Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-8288-3528-3 (dissertation, Hannover 2014)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John-Henri Holmberg (Ed.): Kalte Schatten. Stories by Sweden's most famous suspense authors Åke Edwardson, Åsa Larsson, Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, Håkan Nesser and many others, translation from English, Munich 2014, epilogue (unpaginated; excerpt ; accessed March 9, 2020); Johan Wopenka: The Swedish Police Secures the Crime Scene: A History of Swedish Crime Fiction . From the English by Joachim Dörr, in: Jost Hindersmann (Ed.): Fjords, Elche, Murderers. The Scandinavian crime novel , Wuppertal 2006, p. 71ff. ( Excerpt ; accessed on March 9, 2020).
  2. ↑ skandinavische-Krimis.com , accessed on March 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ Hendrik Werner: Who breaks the law of the series , in: Weser-Kurier, February 28, 2014, accessed on March 8, 2020.
  4. ^ Wallander Ystad slogan in tourist advertising, accessed on March 9, 2020.
  5. ↑ Julia Baaken: Brutal gut: The best Swedish thrillers , in: audible magazin, October 21, 2019, accessed on March 9, 2020.
  6. ↑ www.perlentaucher.de ; accessed on April 8, 2020.
  7. ↑ Article www.schwedenkrimi.de on www.neues-deutschland.de (accessed on March 8, 2020)
  8. ^ Rainer Tittelbach : TV film "A woman disappears - Van Leeuwen's first case". Geschonneck, Haber, Maranow. A ritual murder & a Swedish thriller from Amsterdam . Retrieved March 10, 2020.