Nordic Noir: Crime, Culture, and the Scandinavian Imagination
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Nordic Noir--crime fiction from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland--has become one of the most globally influential literary phenomena of the past fifty years. From Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's Marxist police procedurals of the 1960s to Henning Mankell's Wallander series, from Karin Fossum's psychologically devastating Norwegian villages to Peter Hoeg's meditation on colonialism and Arnaldur Indridason's austere Iceland, these books have captivated readers worldwide. But what makes Nordic Noir Nordic? This course digs beneath the surface of the genre to explore the social, historical, and cultural forces that shape it. We read four landmark novels in the Nordic Noir genre: "The Laughing Policeman" by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, "Don't Look Back" by Karin Fossum, "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow" by Peter Hoeg, and "Jar City" by Arnaldur Indridason.