Adapting social change: Swedish crime fiction as a medium for system correction. (1st March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Larsen, Mads
• Is Part Of: Journal of adaptation in film & performance. Volume 13:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 37
• Page End: 50
• Publication Date: 2020-03-01
• Subjects: Film adaptations -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Motion pictures and literature -- Periodicals; 791.43605
• DOI: 10.1386/jafp_00011_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1753-6421

Abstract

Nordic Noir's progenitor The Man on the Balcony from 1967 critiques social democracy from a Marxist viewpoint. The novel's 1993 film adaptation, however, reuses the same crime to challenge neo-liberal globalization. From a story perspective, this is a drastic deviation from ideological fidelity. But a systems perspective shows that the adaptation adheres to functional fidelity for crime fiction as a medium for social discourse. By examining how the two works engage their respective eras' contemporary issues, we see how Nordic Noir has become a mediator of error correction for Sweden as a social system. Adaptations are therefore expected to show greater fidelity to format than to content, which a systems approach can help facilitate. This perspective also suggests that our nation states – as we lose shared arenas for cultural discourse – will adapt less effectively to changes because it becomes harder to agree on what is real and what is fake.