Bloomsbury Noir in the North: Genre, Politics and Place

What is often termed Nordic Noir has dominated detective fiction, film and television internationally for over two decades now: from Stieg Larsson to The Killing, and from Miss Smillas Feeling for Snow to The Bridge, this genre is now firmly embedded as a global phenomenon. But what are the parameters of this genre, both historically and geographically? What is noirish and what is northern about Nordic noir? Divided into four sections Gender and Sexuality, Space and Place, Politics and Crime, and Genre and Genealogy Noir in the North challenges the traditional critical histories of noir by investigating how it functions transnationally beyond the geographical borders of Scandinavia. The essays in this book deepen our critical understanding of noir more generally by demonstrating, for example, Nordic noirs connection to fin-de-siècle literatures and to mid-century interior design, and by investigating the function of the state in crime fiction. The foreword and coda by two internationally-bestselling writers of crime fiction in the north Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Gunnar Staalesen speak to the social contract undertaken by writers of noir, while the interview with the renowned crime writer Val McDermid adds nuance to our understanding of what it is to write noir in the North.