"An important resource for scholars in multiple disciplines, the book brings together in one place a great deal of important information. ... The primary audience is those interested in television and film production: the book provides data and firsthand accounts and synthesizes that information into a persuasive narrative of development and forecast." (Rosemary Erickson Johnsen, Scandinavian Studies, Vol. 91 (3), 2019)
1. Introduction: Where is Nordic Noir?.- 2. Part I: Local colour and location studies - Local colour and places on screen.- 3. Location studies: a topography of Nordic noir.- 4. Four perspectives on the Nordic region.- 5. Part II: From bestsellers to blockbusters - Stieg Larsson and Scandinavian crime literature as a stepping stone.- 6. Beck and character adaptations.- 7. Funding models and increasing transnationalism.- 8. Part III: Written for the Danish screen - The Killing and DR’s Danish model.- 9. Norskov and Danish commercial public service drama.- 10. The Team, Danish transnationalism and the local colour of Europe.- 11. Part IV: Written for the Nordic screen - Blue Eyes and the rise of the Swedish original.- 12.Trapped and original Noir from Iceland and Norway.- 13. The Bridge, transnational co-productions and screen tourism.- 14. Con
clusion: Nordic Noir beyond the Nordic.
Kim Toft Hansen is Associate Professor of Scandinavian Media Studies at Aalborg University, Denmark. His research has focussed on Scandinavian crime fiction, written and audio-visual, and media production studies with special attention towards relationships between local and global media. He has published extensively on crime fiction and Danish film and television.
Anne Marit Waade is Associate Professor of Media & Journalism, Aarhus University, Denmark. Her research has focused on creative industry and promotional culture, locations in television productions, the export of Danish television drama and media tourism. She has published extensively on Danish television drama, mediated places and tourism.
This book is a comprehensive study of Nordic Noir television drama from the 1990’s until today. The authors introduce the history of contemporary Nordic Noir from the perspective of place, production and location studies. The chapters include readings of well-known television crime dramas such as Beck, The Killing, Trapped and The Bridge as well as a range of other important Nordic Noir cases. The authors position the development of Nordic Noir in the global market for popular television drama and place the international attention towards Nordic crime dramas within regional development of drama production in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Consequently, Nordic Noir is read as both a transnational financial and creative phenomenon and as a local possibility for community building. Offering a comprehensible, scholarly and methodologically original approach to the popularity of Nordic television crime dramas, this volume is aimed at readers with an interest in crime drama as well as scholars and students of television drama.