Swedish Cops

Michael Tapper

Description

Michael Tapper considers Swedish culture and ideas from the period 1965 to 2012 as expressed in detective fiction and film in the tradition of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. Believing the Swedish police narrative tradition to be part and parcel of the European history of ideas and culture, Tapper argues that, from being feared and despised, the police emerged as heroes and part of the modern social project of the welfare state after World War II. Establishing themselves artistically and commercially in the forefront of the genre, Sjöwall and Wahlöö constructed a model for using the police novel as an instrument for ideological criticism of the social democratic government and its welfare state project. With varying political affiliations, their model has been adapted by authors such as Leif G. W. Persson, Jan Guillou, Henning Mankell, Håkan Nesser, Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström, and Stieg Larsson, and in film series such as Beck and Wallander. The first book of its kind about Swedish crime fiction, Swedish Cops is just as thrilling as the novels and films it analyzes.

Introduction

Chapter 1 – The Crime Genre

Origins

Crime and the Law

Chapter 2 – Enter the Police

A Genre is Born

The Police and the Welfare State

Backlash

Dirty Harry

Crime and Civilization

Crime Dystopia: The Psychopath and the Serial Killer

Chapter 3 – Crime Scene: Sweden

A Beginning

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft and the Nation 

Crime and Nationality

The Young Savages of the Asphalt Jungles

The Hoodlum Film

The Politics of Crime

From Punishment to Reform and Back Again

Moral Panics and Crime Journalism

Print the Faction!

Chapter 4 – The 1960s and 1970s: Sjöwall and Wahlöö

Liberal-Conservative Criticism of the Welfare State

Criticism from within the Labour Movement

New Left Criticism of the Welfare State

Eco-Humanist or Green Criticism of the Welfare State

Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall before Sjöwall and Wahlöö

Story of a Crime: Sjöwall and Wahlöö from Freud to Marx

The Film Adaptations

Chapter 5 – The 1980s: Leif G.W. Persson and Jan Guillou

Leif G.W. Persson

Jan Guillou

Chapter 6 – The 1990s: Henning Mankell and Håkan Nesser

Henning Mankell

Håkan Nesser and the Eurocop from Neverland

Chapter 7 – Millennium Cops

Crime and punishment in the Age of War on Terror

'Europudding' Police

Son of Dirty Harry: Beck  and the Iconic Rise of Gunvald Larsson

Roslund and Hellström

Steig Larsson

Leif G.W. Persson: Downfall of the Welfare State

Chapter 8 – Into the Twilight

Cops and the Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft Dichotomy

The Vigilante Cop and Right-wing Extremism

The Vigilante Cop and Fascism

The Challenge of Evil

 

Sujets

• Power Resources
• Style Manuals
• Disciplines
• Language Arts
• Lettres et linguistique
• General officer
• History of film
• LAW
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781783202805
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Swedish Cops
Swedish Cops:
From Sj wall and Wahl to Stieg Larsson
by Michael Tapper
First published in the UK in 2014 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2014 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2014 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Cover designer: Stephanie Sarlos
Cover image: TT News Agency/PA
Copy-editor: Lisa Cordaro
Production manager: Tim Elameer
Typesetting: John Teehan
ISBN 978-1-78320-188-4
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78320-279-9
ePub ISBN 978-1-78320-280-5
Printed and bound by Hobbs the Printers Ltd, UK
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Crime Genre
Origins
Crime and the Law
Chapter 2 Enter the Police
A Genre is Born
The Police and the Welfare State
Backlash
Dirty Harry
Crime and Civilization
Crime Dystopia: The Psychopath and the Serial Killer
Chapter 3 Crime Scene: Sweden
A Beginning
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft and the Nation
Crime and Nationality
The Young Savages of the Asphalt Jungles
The Hoodlum Film
The Politics of Crime
From Punishment to Reform and Back Again
Moral Panics and Crime Journalism
Print the Faction!
Chapter 4 The 1960s and 1970s: Sj wall and Wahl
Liberal-Conservative Criticism of the Welfare State
Criticism from within the Labour Movement
New Left Criticism of the Welfare State
Eco-humanist or Green Criticism of the Welfare State
Per Wahl and Maj Sj wall before Sj wall and Wahl
The Story of a Crime: Sj wall and Wahl from Freud to Marx
The Film Adaptations
Chapter 5 The 1980s: Leif G.W. Persson and Jan Guillou
Leif G.W. Persson
Jan Guillou
Chapter 6 The 1990s: Henning Mankell and H kan Nesser
Henning Mankell
H kan Nesser and the Eurocop from Neverland
Chapter 7 Millennium Cops
Crime and Punishment in the Age of the War on Terror
Son of Dirty Harry: Beck and the Iconic Rise of Gunvald Larsson
Roslund and Hellstr m
Stieg Larsson
Leif G.W. Persson: Downfall of the Welfare State
Chapter 8 Into the Twilight
Cops and the Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft Dichotomy
The Vigilante Cop and Right-wing Extremism
The Vigilante Cop and Fascism
The Challenge of Evil
References
Index: Names
Index: Titles of Works
Acknowledgements
An Adventure 65 Million Years in the Making is the familiar tagline for Jurassic Park , and looking back on the work on this book I know the feeling. I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the advice and input of history professor Ulf Zander and film studies professor Erik Hedling, both at Lund University, Sweden.
My family deserves a standing ovation for putting up with several years of hard work and for keeping my spirits up when they have been close to rock-bottom. I also want to extend my gratitude to secondhand bookshops around the world for providing me with a library that has shrunk the interior space of my house considerably. A warm osu to my fellow members of IF Lund s Karate Kyokushinkai, for all the friendship and bruises that kept my energy level high throughout this work. Invaluable professional help in the translation and editing process was provided by Paul Norlen; without him I could not possibly have made it.
My deepest gratitude goes to the Swedish Crime Writer s Academy, who in 2011 awarded me with the Golden Crowbar for best specialist literature. I am especially grateful, since I shared the limelight that year with one of my favourite authors in the genre: Arne Dahl (awarded for best Swedish crime novel: Viskleken/Chinese Whispers , 2011). For a generous grant to do the English edition I thank the Swedish Writers Union. Finally, I would like to send many warm thoughts to Tim Elameer and the staff at Intellect for handling my book with professional skill.
This book is dedicated to Marita, my wife and partner in crime.
Preface
Swedish Cops: From Sj wall and Wahl to Stieg Larsson is the edited, revised and updated English edition of my dissertation Snuten i skymningslandet: Svenska polisber ttelser i roman och film 1965-2010 / The Cop in the Twilight Land: Swedish Police Narratives in Novels and Films 1965-2010 , published in its original Swedish edition (864pp.) by Nordic Academic Press in Lund 2011.
The editing process has been considerable, removing chapters on authors (Olov Svedelid) and film series ( Johan Falk ), restructuring the other chapters and trimming the reception sections considerably. After reading John-Henri Holmberg s 2010 and 2011 essays about the disastrous translation of Stieg Larsson s Millennium series, and talking with my invaluable aid in translating the book, Paul Norlen, I decided not to use the current English translations of the novels treated in this book. Instead, I stuck with the Swedish editions and, if necessary, translated quotations myself with the help of Paul Norlen.
All titles of books, films, articles, etc. are written like this: Original title / English title (author year), when first mentioned in the book. If the title is available in English translation, then the English title is subsequently used; if not, the original title is used. Please, note that the reviews are listed in a separate section at the end of the list of references.
[ ]
It seems like the 1950s literature has avoided modern collectivism, avoided the special kind of civilization that the 1950s created and that points straight in the direction of the 1960s and 1970s. You can see that in the choice of motifs and settings. We have had vivid portraits of humans in sparsely populated Norrland, in industrial communities and rural societies, just as we have had of people in the world of childhood. We have been treated with sharp allegories and romances in pure pink. We would do away with very little of it. But it seems that the authors come to a halt at the three-room apartments of our suburbs, they step aside from the grocery stores, the subway trains and buses, and they hesitate in front of modern office buildings and service industries. That is the world in which more and more people will live. It does not take much wit to realize that it is a life many find to be one of discomfort, crowding and loneliness.
[ ]
We can map the modern consumer preferences and housing conditions of collective man, his affiliations to various groups and opinions. It is correct and necessary. We also, and most of all, need a portrait of his humanity.
[ ]
Thomas Hardy once wrote that literature is the written revolt against accepted things . And Artur Lundkvist can complete with: The moral duty above all is a general discontent. Revolt and discontent have always been the driving forces towards a better society.
Excerpt from Olof Palme s contribution to Politiker och f rfattare / Politicians and Authors in Bonniers Litter ra Magasin ( BLM ), 1960, 3. 1
Note
1. Palme 1960: 232-33.
Introduction

A dazzling yellow field of rape rises toward a deep-blue sky. On the soundtrack muted minor chords make a stark contrast to the bright idyllic summer landscape, as a dark-skinned girl in a dress, plastic bucket in one hand, walks resolutely out into the field. Detective Inspector Wallander arrives at the scene and goes out to talk to the girl. He shows her his police badge while trying to take control of the situation with his calm, reassuring voice - but to no effect. The distraught girl pours the content of the can over herself and sets fire to it. Wallander freezes with fear in his eyes. Orange flames kiss the blue sky. Main titles. Yellow letters form the word WALLANDER against a blue background, from which our tired, haggard hero with a three-day stubble looks at us, with melancholy in his eyes. On the soundtrack, Emily Barker sings Nostalgia .
Powerful as David Lynch s allusion to Norman Rockwell in the opening of Blue Velvet (1986), the overture to the British-Swedish production of Wallander in 2008 summarizes the theme of a paradise lapsed into a nightmare. However, in this case the implied criticism is not of civilization in general or just any western world country. The colour palette stresses the blue-and-yellow symbolism taken from the Swedish flag so hard that this could only be about Sweden as heaven and hell. Barker s song diagnoses the condition of both Wallander and the country: nostalgia. The melancholic lamentation for the loss of a Golden Age, the post-war welfare state and its promises that has become a keyword in commentary and analysis of Swedish crime fiction in print, film and TV. Also, it is faction - a crossroads of a carefully constructed mix of fact, fiction and myth - and it has gained international popularity as well as seeping into the Swedish self-image.
Since the international success story of Swedish crime started with Maj Sj wall and Per Wahl s groundbreaking ten novels from 1965-1975 under the subheading The Story of a Crime , the Swedish crime genre has become a success story both as entertainment and as ideology production. However, it does not exist in isolation. The crime genre in literature, comics, film and TV is a global cultural phenomenon and industry, with a broad popular resonance among people from all classes and cultures, and Swedish crime fiction is a popular brand within the genre. Just enter Swedish crime fiction or Schwedenkrimi on the Internet and look at the number of hits. In 2011 The New York Times reported that Stieg Larsson s Millennium trilogy had sold more than 17 million copies in the United States alone, and that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005) was the first novel ever to sell more than 1 million copies in a digital edition (Bosman, 2011).