Professor Andrew Nestingen, Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington

The paper argues that Scandinavian popular culture, and in particular crime fiction, can be fruitfully situated in terms of "medium concept" and "quality"– drawing on theories of marketing and narrative in film and television theory. The paper's analysis of examples focuses on the recurrent figure of the child in crime fiction, showing the way cultural producers use the child to generate "quality." This account of Scandinavian popular culture and crime fiction argues against commentators' emphasis on leftist cultural politics as definitive of Scandinavian crime fiction and popular culture. Instead, the paper emphasizes the importance of cultural economics. The argument allows us to see an alternative genealogy of Scandinavian popular culture, which stresses its cultural identification with the neoliberal turn of the 1980s, rather than resistance to it.

NOVEMBER 11, 2015
7 PM
KNIGHT LIBRARY BROWSING ROOM

Andrew Nestingen is professor of Scandinavian Studies and adjunct in cinema studies at the University of Washington. He teaches crime fiction, cinema, and cultural theory. His books include Transnational Cinema in a Global North (2005, co-ed Trevor Elkington), Crime and Fantasy in Scandinavia (2008), Scandinavian Crime Fiction (2011, co-ed Paula Arvas), and The Cinema of Aki Kuarismäki (2013).

For more information email Michael Stern at mjstern@uoregon.edu

Sponsored by the Department of German and Scandinavian.